Thistlecrack and Kemboy look to be the best value in the ante-post odds for the world’s most prestigious chase, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, which is to be run on March 15.

Thistlecrack was a top class staying hurdler and noted for the size of his engine. He looked to be on his way to greatness when hacking up in his first four chases in 2016 including an ultra-impressive win in the prestigious King George Chase at Kempton Park, run annually on Boxing Day. He was touched off in a subsequent preparation at Cheltenham and then, alas, he had to be scratched as favourite for the Gold Cup after suffering a slight tendon tear. Last year he had to be scratched from the big one again after the discovery of a stress fracture in a leg.

However, in this season’s King George he looked back to himself despite now being a ten-year-old. He came off second best in a stirring duel to the line. However, it could be a different story in the climb up the Cheltenham hill where his obviously high VO2 Max will be at its most advantageous. He is now an eleven-year-old and trainer Colin Tizzard said last month, “Given his history of injuries and how he has picked them up, our best chance is going there without a run. He’s a lovely horse as we’ve always known and given the problems he’s had over the past season or two we just want to get him to the Gold Cup.”

Irish trainer Willie Mullins is the most successful Cheltenham Festival trainer in history but the Gold Cup has always eluded him. Ireland’s twelve-time champion trainer has entered three, Kemboy, Bellshill and Al Boum Photo. Kemboy looks to be his best chance. This rangy French-bred seven-year-old is Ireland’s most progressive chaser and comes off an emphatic victory in the Grade 1 Savills Chase over three miles at Leopardstown on December 28. He was unconsidered before that but had always been an eyecatching sort who just needed maturing. He has run twice at the Cheltenham Festival, finishing fifth in the Grade 1 Neptune Novices Hurdle over two miles and five furlongs in 2017 and fourth in the Grade 1 JLT Novice’s Chase over two miles and four furlongs last year.

The ruling Gold Cup favourite is Ireland’s Patrick Kelly-trained Presenting Percy, who is unbeaten in two starts at the Cheltenham Festival, winning the Listed Pertemps Network Final handicap hurdle over three miles in 2017 with second top weight and winning the Grade 1 RSA Insurances Novice Chase over three miles and half-a-furlong last year. Interestingly he beat Monalee by seven lengths in the latter race, the same horse which Kemboy beat by seven-and-a-half lengths in the Savills Chase. Presenting Percy has only raced once this season, defending his title in the Grade 2 Galmoy Hurdle over three miles at Gowran Park on 24 January. Last season he used that and a run in the Grade 2 Red Mills Chase over two miles and four furlongs as his build up to Cheltenham, although he had also had three runs before Christmas.

Presenting Percy is at a best price 3/1, Kemboy is at 10/1 and Thistlecrack 16/1.

By David Thiselton

Candice Bass-Robinson runs three horses at Fairview tomorrow following last week’s successful foray when she won with two of her four Port Elizabeth raiders, and seemingly this is going to be a regular thing.

She said: “I will go on sending horses to PE every week for the next two months because there is less racing in Cape Town. At one time we used to race twice a week there and now it’s often only once a week.”

An analysis on the SA Horseracing website shows that the total number of scheduled racemeetings in South Africa will drop from last year’s 432 to 427 this year with the Eastern Cape losing three (72 to 69) and the Western Cape dropping from 77 to 75. Some of this is due to the way the calendar falls but it is particularly noticeable in Cape Town at the moment with only four meetings this month. Last year there were just five in February but a fixture was inserted at Durbanville on the Saturday after the Sun Met, so preventing this time’s blank fortnight.

Bernard Fayd’Herbe, who won on odds-on shot Big Fish for the stable last Friday, rides two of the three raiders – 4-1 chance Profound in the 1 300m maiden (race three) and Celestial Prince who is 16-10 favourite for the 1 900m maiden (race five). Lyle Hewitson partners 15-2 stable companion Master Design in the latter race.

The betting on the big two in the trainers’ championship is now closer than it has been all season. Justin Snaith, bidding for his third title and with stakes of nearly R11.4 million, is favourite at 11-10 with World Sports Betting but three-time champion Sean Tarry is only R600 000 behind him and is on 12-10. Mike de Kock, champion eight times and on 7-1, has stakes of nearly R9 million and is the only other quoted.

Anton Marcus is beginning to look generous at 15-10 to become champion jockey for the fifth time. He went into last night’s Greyville meeting on 122 winners, nine clear of 28-10 second favourite Muzi Yeni with former champion Gavin Lerena (82) on 33-10, the same price as the current champion Lyle Hewitson (93).

Marcus has five rides at Kenilworth on Saturday but only one is favourite, Red Rascal, a rare ride for nephew Adam in the 1 000m handicap. The four-year-old, who won his last start, heads the market at 4-1. S’Manga Khumalo rides at Kenilworth for the second Saturday in succession and he will be in action in every race except the last. Five of his seven mounts are for Joey Ramsden and the betting would suggest that his best chance is on 7-1 shot Apollo Ace in the 1 000m handicap.  

BLOB Paul Reeves is calling for the present 8.15am official scratching of reserves to be put back to 9.00am, the deadline for declaring blinkers, tongue ties etc, saying: “Sometimes runners are scratched between the two deadlines. Extending the time would give that much more chance of reserves getting a run and so filling the fields. Punters want runners and so do owners.”

However National Racing Bureau boss Aveen Sewpersad is unimpressed and said: “The 8.15 am time is linked to racehorse transport because horses start leaving stables for the racecourse around 8.30am.”

By Michael Clower

Owner and small-time breeder Marius Mostert made a heartwarming gesture in the winner’s enclosure recently when donating the full share of his stakes winnings to trainer Gary Rich.

Marius is the husband of former Gold Circle media liaison manager Gill Mostert nee Simpkins.

The winning horse was Clouds Of Witness and Marius said, “I own 50% of this Master Of My Fate gelding and Gary had given Billy Jacobson the opportunity to ride him regardless. Billy works on our farm and is like family to us, so we won the race with our jockey and our colours and it also flashed through my mind that Gary wakes up early in the morning like every other trainer and goes through the same hardships despite not having the biggest or highest class string so I thought it would be a small gesture and show gratitude for helping our dream come true.”

Marius has his own business which keeps him busy and Gill runs their farm in Summerveld. Billy is the farm manager and Bugsy Saunders is the manager of the horses.

The Mosterts have a small band of broodmares and have recently added a stallion when they retired their part-owned Australian-bred horse Kingdom Come. He will be one of the only raced maidens to be standing in South Africa but is well bred being by Kentucky Derby and World Cup winner Animal Kingdom out of a Listed-placed Not A Single Doubt mare. He showed promise and ran four places in five starts but unfortunately had an entrapped epiglottis and couldn’t breathe.

Kingdom Come’s first cover will be Var mare Qarman who won on debut over 1000m at Turffontein and had nine more unplaced runs.  

Qarman currently has a “beautiful” Captain Of All filly at foot and was last covered by Ideal World, sire of Sun Met winner Rainbow Bridge.

The Mosterts also stand the five-time winning Jet Master mare Jet Intombi, who is in foal to Twice over, sire of Vodacom Durban July winner Do It Again.

The farm is also used to spell young horses and as a holiday place for horses in training needing rests.

Marius has about nine horses in training including the talented colt White Lightning and the Australian-bred gelding Celebration Rock, both trained by Paul Lafferty.

He also has a share in a promising Lafferty-trained Silvano out of a Visionaire mare, who will be coming out in a barrier trial soon.

One of Gill’s favourite horses was July winner Legislate and fittingly the first horse she has ever owned by herself is his first progeny to be sold at public auction. The Mosterts’ “Lovinglife Stables” bought this Legislate colt out of Listed-winning Lundy’s Liability mare Bursary for R100,000 at the recent Cape Premier Yearling Sale. Marius gave the colt to Gill for her birthday and he will run one day in her newly registered colours.

Marius has done the full circle in racing. As a student he had a job on course as a “paper boy”. These are the helpers who are on hand to fit the rolls of paper into the Tote machines. He then progressed on to Tote machine operator and then became a supervisor. From a long time ago he enjoyed punting but his passion extends far beyond just betting. 

Gill was also known during her time at Gold Circle for her passion for the sport. 

The couple are certainly living the dream in the “dream industry”.

By David Thiselton

Last Of The Legend has a mighty reputation to live up to if he is to emulate the feats of his illustrious sire but he is on the right track as the son of Horse Chestnut kept his clean sheet in the seventh on the poly at Greyville yesterday.

From maiden triumph into winning an 80MR Handicap is no easy assignment but Champion trainer Sean Tarry knows his oats and Last Of The Legend delivered as he got the better of Lowan Denysschen’s luckless favourite High Green, his fourth successive runner-up berth.

Bottom weight and aided by a pedestrian gallop that largely nullified his position two off the fence for much of the race, Last Of The Legend was given a peach of a ride by Luke Ferraris who, in only his second year as an apprentice, is mature beyond his age when it comes to race-riding. He nursed his mount until challenged by multiple champion Anton Marcus on High Green, and then extracted just enough to win cosily in what turned into a sprint for the line.

It was not a win that earmarks a champion but it was still a very decent effort.

Yesterday was one of those days for punters as favourites got ‘rolled’ regularly and those backers that went wide in the exotics will have been well rewarded.

The upset trend was set in the card opener, although the winner Yaas, was not entirely unexpected with the Louis Goosen stable almost invincible at present.

Goosen was aided by apprentice Jason Gates, ‘up-graded’ to a 2.5kg claim last Sunday after recording the 20^th winner of his fledgling career. He was worth every gram of his claim on Yaas as he kept the filly going just long enough to edge out two fast-finishers in Missibaba and favourite Sarabi, short heads covering the first four home.

Gates was back in the winner’s box two races later, as he scored a comfortable win on Miesque Sunrise for Wayne Bardenhorst, the first boil-over in the Pick 6 with the winner starting at 25-1.

Gates tracked the early pace with the balance of the field playing the waiting game, but once he set his mount alight, the pack was left flat-footed and his filly was never challenged.

If Yaas didn’t set the trend, then Flexible Fugitive did as Robbie Hill’s charge arrived at 30-1 in the second, Gareth Wright getting the gelding up on the line to edge out favourite and pacemaker Captain’s Alpha.

Final Attempt was the next favourite to go by the wayside as Donnan took command at the top of the straight under Muzi Yeni and hold off the attentions of the grey Master Sam, Mark Dixon’s yard showing a welcome return to form after a long battle with a virus. Favourite Final Attempt scraped into third to keep the majority of Place Accumulator punters in the hunt.

Red Shift was sent out favourite for the fifth but he was not striding out when the field crossed the line as Euphoric got the better of the well-fancied Collabro.

Bold Beauty, a 22-1 shot, added salt into any punter’s wounds who may still have been running in the exotics. Often a tardy starter, Bold Beauty got way on terms under Mark Khan in the sixth and after a ding-dong battle up the straight eventually got the better of Awesomely Tuned and Josephine Baker in a tight finish. It was a welcome winner for Duncan Howells who has languished in the second box on more occasions than he would care to remember this season.

It took eight races for some relief for favourite backers as Sean Veale got the Dennis Drier-trained Forthelastime home comfortably. Coming from off the pace, the gelding quickened smartly to out-pace Sovereign Solder and South Paw, who turned in an improved performance fitted with blinkers.

The PA payout of R43.30 belied the reality of the day as only a .09 percentage was paid out on the Pick 6.

By Andrew Harrison