whipping boy
You’d have to be a pathetically easy touch to get excited about the modest horseracing fare on offer this weekend. A couple of grey cards at Scottsville in KwaZulu-Natal and Gosforth Park in Gauteng make up the Saturday programme and on Sunday the action, such as it is, takes place at Durbanville, in Cape Town, and at Bloemfontein.
Form students will have to sweat to get an edge and they will need patience.
The best bet might well come up in the very first event of the weekend, a maiden plate for fillies over 1 400m at Scottsville. Trainer Samantha Forbes sends out well-bred three-year-old Exclusive Honour. This one has placed in all her nine runs, including a number of close seconds. Ridden as usual by Forbes’s husband Alex, this niece of champion filly Olympic Duel goes beyond 1 200m for the first time. She seems likely to appreciate the extra furlong and could have an overdue change of luck here.
Oz Dancer is an Australian-bred filly racing for the first time. It is impossible to know whether she is a serious danger. Watch the betting. For the trifecta/quartet include Invariable, Element Of Power, Slew Per Suspect and Lady In Command. Absolut Star and Refreshing are likely improvers and could beef up the dividends.
In the third, Up The Gunners seems very likely to score for trainer Alistair Gordon in the maiden plate for colts over 1 000m. He ran poorly last time when highly fancied and could make amends.
Last Option improved in his last run and could chase Up The Gunners home.
Gordon could be back in the winners’ enclosure with Royal Isle in the fifth, the first leg of the jackpot. She has bumped into stronger fields recently and last time was a close third behind Gay Divorcee at Greyville. The four-year-old has already had 14 runs and could get that elusive second win in this novice sprint.
Gosforth Park on Saturday offers a possible pick six banker in the last leg. Going by bitter experience, this is not a strategy recommended for the faint-hearted. However, the David Ferraris-trained Belfast seems the closest thing to a banker on the card and seems an obvious choice in this 1 300m novice plate. The three-year-old colt is a consistent runner and has gone close in his last two starts.
Another interesting runner here is Shadow Hawk, a half-brother to 2000 Horse of the Year and double July winner El Picha. He could give Belfast most to do.
The first leg of the pick six should be a shoot-out between Meritorious and Danehill Dancer. At Durbanville trainer Dean Kannemeyer could provide two bankers in the middle legs of the jackpot. In the fifth Kannemeyer saddles promising Grant’s Dynamite. In his first run since being gelded “Grant” was a respectable third to highly rated Lizard Island and this one looks a cut above his rivals.
In the sixth Kannemeyer sends out the talented four-year-old Muddy Knees. The gelding is much better than his last run suggests and at best can certainly win. In the eighth race Winged Speed will take some beating from a good draw. Bloemfontein? Winning the lottery may be easier.