De Kock juggling horses amid shifting conditions

South African trainer frustrated by Meydan switching Tapeta for dirt track

Jockey Paul Hanagan leads Soft Falling Rain, left, owned by Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamad Bin Rashid al-Maktoum, to win the Godolphin Mile at the Dubai World Cup on March 30, 2013. Marwan Naamani / AFPShow less

NEWMARKET, ENGLAND // The fragility of racehorses often results in the best-laid plans going awry, which Mike de Kock knows better than most.

The South African trainer often has to target races far in advance with his horses, and he is behind schedule with Soft Falling Rain, who is set to run at Royal Ascot in the Queen Anne Stakes on Tuesday.

Soft Falling Rain was a brilliant winner of the Godolphin Mile at Meydan Racecourse last year, but such was the effort he had to put forth to prevail that he needed several months to recuperate. He missed the five-day Royal meeting.

As a result, Soft Falling Rain, owned by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid, had a lighter campaign of two runs and not three in Dubai this season. Although he gave up his Godolphin Mile crown to fellow South African raider Variety Club in March, Variety Club's win in Hong Kong showed that run was legitimate.

On the way back to England, Soft Falling Rain suffered a fever and is 12 days behind in his training programme as he prepares to face Toronado, Al Shaqab Racing’s overwhelming favourite.

“I am hoping he will get away with it and that he will be in the first four,” De Kock said at his Abington House stables in Newmarket.

De Kock will also run Shea Shea on the same day in the King’s Stand Stakes, a Group 1 sprint in which he was edged out by old sparring partner Sole Power 12 months ago.

Like Soft Falling Rain, Shea Shea lines up at Ascot stripped of his Dubai title after he conceded his 2013 Al Quoz Sprint crown to Hong Kong’s Amber Sky and Charlie Appleby’s Ahtoug at Meydan in March.

Dubai’s loss could be Ascot’s gain, however, because De Kock is adamant that Shea Shea is in the form of his life.

“His preparations have been good this year,” he said. “We were a lot easier on him in Dubai, so obviously, he is a fresh horse. When you have a real go at them in Dubai, it is hard to keep them going for the rest of the year. Dubai is our Royal Ascot, but things are different this time.”

As a measure of the sort of planning De Kock has to coordinate in order to be successful in multiple continents, his team for next season's Dubai World Cup Carnival entered quarantine in South Africa yesterday.

Meydan Racecourse only recently announced it would replace the Tapeta surface placed down in 2010 with dirt. It means he had little time to restructure the make-up of his team of 14 that will eventually race on dirt at the Dubai World Cup Carnival starting in January.

“It is hugely frustrating,” De Kock said. “My horses will be missing some of the biggest meetings in South Africa, and I’ve had to guess whether they will be the right type of horses for the new surface.”

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