J & B Met runner-up Bravura is to join Joey Ramsden's select Cape Town band intent on plundering the big Turffontein prizes.
Photo by Gold Circle
Ramsden said: “Bravura will go up to Johannesburg this week and he will run in the H.F. Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes on March 31 followed by the President's Champion Challenge on April 28.”
Justin Snaith flew to Jo'burg to supervise the work-outs of his L'Ormarins Queen's Plate winner Gimmethegreenlight and Run For It (third and fourth in the Met) on Saturday and was delighted with what he saw.
He said: “They galloped 1200m at Randjesfontein, both went well and won their respective gallops.
"Gimmethegreenlight will have a prep in the conditions plate at Turffontein on March 13 before going back there for the SA Classic on March 31 while Run For It goes for both the Horse Chestnut and the President's Challenge.”
Hopes for an early end to the export ban after May 3 (the anniversary of the last African Horse Sickness controlled-area outbreak) have met with a serious hitch as it emerges that Europe is insisting on a two-year absence from the disease.
Racing South Africa's Peter Gibson said: “The EU's current legislation (a 24-month suspension) is not in line with the 2008 OIE AHS code and it will require an Act of Parliament to change their import criteria.
"A concerted effort to lobby the EU is being formulated.”
