Not the best of weeks last weekend at Scottsville but it was a top class meeting and that in turn makes winner finding that bit more difficult when you know that every horse has been fine tuned to the moment on the hunt for the added prize money and public adulation.
We did have the one winner in the shape of the great Carry On Alice - YouTube vision her Cape Flying Championship win in January - who took the big sprint on her final race before retiring for breeding purposes and she was eye catching to put it mildly – and although I fully understand the financial reasons behind such moves, it is still a shame to wave goodbye to one of the best female sprinters for many a year.
I stand head bowed writing this after it was pointed out that I promised a Gavin Lerena watch in my article two weeks ago then completely ignored the South African jockey last week – apologies all round.
Playing catch up I can update and tell you that as I write he has had the one winner on Mick Channon’s Zzoro at odds of 7/2 from seventeen rides in the last two weeks as well as four places. In his defence his main employer is the Charlie Hills yard who have only had two winners in the same period and with a good percentage of the stable runners owned by Hamdan Al Maktoum who invariably uses his retained jockeys, chances have been few and far between.
If he is good enough, and personally I am convinced he is, and then some, then he will get his chances and take them accordingly, and I suspect he will have been given plenty of advice by countryman Michael Roberts before he left home to try his hand in the United Kingdom and Europe.
On to the racing this weekend and a ten race card awaits at Greyville which will keep the racegoers busy enough though even I can divide my betting bank by ten without the need for a calculator. I have burnt my fingers enough times in maidens now to swerve them on this particular occasion and will focus on the bigger better races in the hope I can pay back for last weekend’s misdemeanors.
If I can stay away from the bar long enough to await race six (14:05pm local time) then that would be a sensible move with the Grade Three Lonsdale Stirrup Cup over 2400m the first of the day’s big races. My World looks the one to be on after a superb running on fourth over 1800m in The Sledgehammer here last time out and back at a far more suitable trip now (he stays even further with ease), he looks the one to be on for the excellent Candice Bass-Robinson and jockey Craig Zackey.
Next up (Race Seven) we have the ultra-competitive Woolavington 2000 over (you guessed it) 2000m, and a field of fifteen fillies will make trouble in running all the more of an issue. Safe Harbour, Final Judgement, and Lady Of The House have all been well supported in the early markets which makes interesting reading, but I am siding with Joey Ramsden’s Epona, a daughter of the legendary Silvano who won last time out here on the polytrack in what looks like it may well have been her prep race.
Some shrewd bets have already been placed on her ahead of Saturday’s contest and as Joey is British, even if he now sees himself as South African, he will be the one I back with cold hard cash on the day.
One more big race to go and the Daily News 2000 comes up next (this time for colts and geldings), and again we have a large and highly competitive field to work on. Africa Rising intrigues but is not guaranteed to get the trip which is a major concern though I may still have an each way saver on Sean Tarry’s son of Visionaire, but it will be Al Sahem who is weighed down by my bets as the highest rated horse in the field.
Sean Tarry’s “first string” won the S A Derby with plenty in hand last time out over 2450m so stamina is not an issue, and he did impress when doing so, and if he can win this and land my final bet, I will be singing the praises of Greyville all the louder by Saturday evening.
