The Cape summer season gathers momentum with the R125 000 grade 2 Odessa Stud Fillies Championship for three-year-olds over 1 400m at Kenilworth on Saturday, and the scene could be set for settling a couple of old scores.
Mike Azzie has engaged Jeff Lloyd to ride his promising filly Bridal Paths and the Highveld-based trainer must have a big chance of boarding the flight home with the winner’s cheque in his pocket.
The talented daughter of Brashee won her first two starts with ease at Turffontein and then headed for Greyville on July day, where she again scored well in a fillies feature to round off her two-year-old campaign unbeaten. She had Port Elizabeth raider Tatler a comfortable 1,5 lengths behind her in third place and seemed unlikely to end her winning sequence there.
However, on Gold Cup day in August Tatler kicked off a red-letter day for trainer Alan Greeff, who later won the big race with Cereus, when she turned the tables on the Gauteng star in the Golden Slipper.
Bridal Paths started at a prohibitive 6-10 for that race but, after suffering interference, could do no better than third, with the consistent Silver Moon, also entered here, pipping her for second place.
These three look set to fight out the finish again on Saturday, with Bridal Paths selected to prove that her last defeat was all wrong. Note, though, that the race is run on Kenilworth’s tight “old course”, which favours low draws. The three mentioned have drawn the worst barriers of the 13 runners.
The best draw has gone to last season’s Cape champion two-year-old Dance Of Diamonds. Stablemate Taupo Retreat shocked last week when he won the November Handicap at Gosforth Park for trainer Joey Ramsden. The Cape fillies haven’t looked anything special, though, and this one was a long way back in the race won by Bridal Paths on July day.
A couple of the more lightly raced fillies could show improvement, with the Mike Bass-trained Enchantress chief among them. A half-sister to champion sprinter Harry’s Charm, this one ran a good second in a feature immediately after her facile maiden win and is highly regarded. Her stablemate Sport’s Chestnut is out of a half- sister to Horse Chestnut and will benefit from her first run around a turn last time.
The rest seem to have a lot to find.
In the second Dean Kannemeyer’s Breeze On Past looks too good for the opposition but his entry in the third, Extended Applause, could battle to peg back in-form Glen Kotzen’s Jammin Jive, who has Lloyd up.
The Guv’nor can also score in the fourth on the classy Badge Of Honour, who carries top weight but has tons of courage and has performed well in feature races.
The former champion jockey rides at Greyville on Friday night and seems set to win aboard Bite The Bullet in the second. In the third Bay Bonny, a R430 000 daughter of Fort Wood, has a chance of shedding her maiden tag over 1 600m.
KwaZulu-Natal trainer Cyril Naidoo has been doing well in Gauteng and could win the fourth, a graduation plate, with Defiant, who was just five lengths behind Tatler in the Golden Slipper last time.
On Sunday Lloyd heads for Fairview in Port Elizabeth, where he has good rides on Lil Blue Ridinhood (race 2), Shining Rock (race 6), Explosive (race 7) and Edda (race 8).