Gold Circle Pty (Ltd)

Today's Racing :

Mother Russia to join the club

Chad Cooke
The Grade 1 feature at Turffontein on Saturday afternoon is the Empress Club Stakes for the ladies over a mile for a stake of R1-million.
Eleven of the fairer sex will line up to do battle for the healthy purse on offer, but when one looks at the conditions of the race and at the form of the Mike de Kock-trained Mother Russia, ten of them look to be doing battle for the second prize only.
With the field carrying level weights under the conditions of this race and Mother Russia being the highest rated filly in the contest with a rating of 106, she is 2kg and more superior to the rest of the field over a suitable distance. The daughter of Windrush has not only won two features in her last three outings, but last time out put up a brilliant effort when in the Met she overcome the widest of draws to be narrowly run out of the winners box by the game mare, River Jetez, but beating home Pocket Power, Kapil, Big City Life to name but a few. The four-year-old filly has done it all and is the best weighted horse in the contest, making this something of a one-horse race, but there is one possible chink in her armour - draw 10 of 11.
This might seem a fair hurdle to overcome but she beat the worst of draws in the Met and failed narrowly against far better opposition than what she meets here, so the armour looks sturdy and the result should be another win for Mother Russia and De Kock. The battle for the second placing is interesting with Geoff Woodruff’s Mitra and Gavin van Zyl’s Prestic appearing to be the main protagonists. Prestic enjoys a 1,5kg weight advantage in this contest and has drawn well while Mitra comes from a wider draw but is unbeaten in her last three runs. Mitra had the beating of Captain’s Gal last time out and the latter franked the form by winning next time out by three lengths. Geoff Woodruff’s filly comes off a three-month layoff and maybe a little ring rusty but she could have more to come.The last graded race on the card is the Grade 2 Hawaii Stakes which will be run over 1400m. Rudra made a scintillating return to the track after a layoff of over a year when he easily mowed down the opposition over a mile at this course earlier this month. The five-year-old son of Parade Leader will strip a fitter horse on Saturday afternoon and although this trip might be on the short side for him he should again be coming from well off the pace. Jockey Johnny Geroudis partners the horse again and the pairing could well make it two wins in a row. Buy And Sell bounced back to best last time when winning over the course and distance under Piere Strydom earlier this month and with a good draw and Strydom aboard again it would be foolish to ignore their chances. Smart Banker put up a very decent effort in the Met when seventh beaten just under three lengths when drawn poorly and not given much of a chance. The five-year-old inmate of the Charles Laird yard has not drawn well but in Anton Marcus has one of the best riders in the land and the pairing deserve the utmost respect.

\| All information on these pages are (©) Copyright Gold Circle Pty (Ltd) 2002 \| site map
(This site is best viewed at 1024 X 768)