Horse of the Year Celtic Grove will be a warm order to win his debut as a four-year-old in the R200000 grade 2 Skeaping Trophy over 1600m at Turffontein on Saturday.
The handsome Fort Wood gelding has notched up four of his 10 wins (from his past 13 starts) to date over this testing mile, including last year’s edition of this race, and is unbeaten at the course. His last effort, when runner-up in the Durban July, was simply excellent as he was conceding 0,5kg to the very useful year-older winner Trademark.
Add to this excellent record that trainer David Ferraris has been in sparkling early-season form he had seven winners last weekend and the case for Celtic Grove resuming his winning ways seems to take on compelling proportions.
Trainer Gary Alexander may have a different opinion, though. He has engaged champion jockey Piere Strydom to ride the classy six-year-old Clifton King, his only runner on the day, and will be hoping that Striker gets the best out of the New Zealand-bred gelding.
Strydom, of course, has the advantage of knowing just how good Celtic Grove is. As the stable rider for Ferraris he was aboard the champion in two of his victories last season and then significantly turned him down for the July in favour of Trademark. Equally significantly, Ferraris has not used the jockey since.
But Clifton King has more going for him than just a brilliant rider. He has been among the top sprinter-milers in South Africa for some time and two years ago memorably lowered the colours of Jet Master over this distance at Gosforth Park. His most recent form is good, including a win in the Senor Santa Handicap and a short-head second behind All Will Be Well in the Mercury Sprint in July. He concedes Celtic Grove just 0,5kg in this weight-for-age event and must have a top chance himself.
All Will Be Well also lines up here and was far from disgraced behind the speedy Settler City last week. He has won over this distance although he seems to prefer shorter and cannot be discounted.
Badger’s Coast from the Mike de Kock stable probably prefers more ground but has plenty of class and should run into the places at least.
At first glance the chances of three-year-old Weston Blaze don’t seem strong. The Western Winter colt was beaten in a graduation plate last time, but there’s no profit in disregarding trainer Geoff Woodruff’s judgement.
In the fourth race Mark Khan will be hoping to further his jockey championship aspirations aboard Deep Freeze, runner-up in his past five starts. It should be a match race with Kelly, who was backed to odds-on in his last run but found one too good in Band Boy. That one went on to reel off four wins in a row, so the form looks good.
Khan also seems to have a good ride in the eighth on Meritorious, who has bumped some useful types in recent starts. He may have most to fear from Ferraris’s Appeal Process.
In the ninth Ferraris sends out blue-blood colt Martinelli for his second local run. He won his first three weeks ago by a neck but faces a much sterner task here, with De Kock’s Brazilian import Australlis probably the main danger.
Kenilworth best bet: Malinga (race 6) Clairwood best bets: Sal’s Latin Lass (race 1); Dancal (race 6); Queen Of Dance (race 7); Rush Hour (race 10)