Twinkle Toes can live up to her name in the Pravda Maiden tomorrow when Kenilworth stages its last meeting for seven weeks.

This R1.8 million purchase ran above stable expectations when starting second favourite on debut three weeks ago and would have gone very close had not the winner taken her ground 50m out.

“She surprised me that day and this always worries me when they run the next time,” says Justin Snaith, seemingly more cautious than confident. “She will probably still need it a bit but she will run a big race.”

It’s perhaps worth noting – rather than being wiser and poorer afterwards – that she is drawn only four from the outside. The ground is significantly better on the inside for the whole length of the sprint course so Donovan Dillon is going to have to tack across.

So too will Aldo Domeyer on big danger Sails Set but Persian Silk, who has had two good runs, has a good draw and so may pose the biggest threat.

The Snaiths think a lot of Black Arthur but the newcomer has it all to do from his ten draw in the 1 400m St Dalfour Maiden and Jiggery Pokery should be hard to beat after his ultra-promising first run.

He was to have reappeared on 10 August but was scratched on the morning of the race after failing to eat up. “He had a bit of a virus and didn’t eat for two days,” recalls Candice Robinson, adding: “but he is fine again now.”

The Mike Bass stable may follow up with Arabian Winter in the Mountain View Academy Maiden. The handicappers say that Meritocracry is half a kilo better but there is a line of form- admittedly pretty tentative – that gives Grant van Niekerk’s mount a slight edge.

When Captain Bagg sprang a 14-1 surprise last month Eric Sands said that the horse had “a lot of ability but problems upstairs.” The bottom weight will be much shorter in the Michaud Agencies Handicap and Sands, expanding on last time’s comments, says: “He is not an easy horse to train and he tends to race with his head cocked to one side. Also he rushes and then comes back to you.”

Top weight Muscatt, the course record holder over this distance, has been raised a kilo for last time’s second but is given marginal preference.

Varumba, a R2.5 million Var filly, stands out in the Fulcrum Novice Plate after her third places in the SA Fillies Nursery and Kenilworth Fillies Nursery. She has not raced for three months but Vaughan Marshall – 15 winners from the last eight Cape Town meetings- has his horses on song and confirms “Yes, she is fit.”

By Michael Clower

Picture: Muscatt (Nkosi Hlophe)