Carry On Alice warms up for the Betting World Cape Flying Championship in the Sceptre Stakes at the Horses For Causes meeting at Kenilworth tomorrow.
Carry On Alice (Nkosi Hlophe)
S’Manga Khumalo’s mount will be a short-priced favourite – she opened at 14-10 with World Sports Betting yesterday – and she is hard to oppose, particularly as it’s her third run after a rest and she has two and a half lengths in hand on adjusted merit ratings. Her biggest negative is the poor record of favourites in recent seasons. Cold As Ice 12 months ago was the first to win for six years.
Sean Tarry also trains the next highest-rated, Bichette, who started favourite for the Diadem three weeks ago but dropped out to finish last and is an 8-1 chance here. “She went to the outside on her own and then Exelero joined her and they cut each other’s throats,” explains the champion trainer.
Cuvee Brut finished strongly to very nearly beat Carry On Alice in the Southern Cross and will appreciate the extra furlong. Seemingly last time’s Laisserfaire disappointment is best forgotten and at 11-2 you can back her each way.
“She had 61kg but even so I thought it was a bit of a flat run,” says Brett Crawford who is bidding for his fourth Sceptre. “Our horses were going through a flat patch at the time – they weren’t running as well as they could – but they are fine now. I don’t expect Cuvee Brut to beat the favourite but she will be in the money.”
The Fly By Night who won the 2014 Mercury Sprint would have these for breakfast and Mike Bass is bidding for his third Sceptre in six seasons. She showed signs of returning to form in the Diadem but both the form book and her 8-1 price indicate that she needs to improve a bit more to win this.
Fly BY Night (Liesl King)
Real Princess is quite short at 9-2 but she was less than a length behind Tarry’s star in the Southern Cross. “She ran a great race that day and another over 1 100m in the Laisserfaire,” enthuses Dean Kannemeyer who has yet to win this. “She will love this trip – she is bred to get at least a mile.”
Princess Royal (7-1) was only inches further back in the Southern Cross and apparently has improved since. “She has come on by leaps and bounds and I have never seen her work like she did this week,” reports Glen Kotzen.
Cosmic Light, also 7-1, has an outside draw and the penetrometer readings suggest that the ground is slightly faster on the inner. However she would have been in the shake-up in the Southern Cross had she not lost ground at the start.
“The instructions to the rider were to race from off the pace and that could be why she was a bit sluggish,” Duncan Howells recalls. “She has improved since and I think she will be better suited to this trip. But it’s going to be a tough race.”
By Michael Clower
