The money has come for Rainbow Bridge and Eric Sands’ unbeaten star is now 15-10 clear favourite for Saturday’s Green Point Stakes with World Sports Betting while Betting World has him 16-10 joint favourite with Legal Eagle.
In normal circumstances Legal Eagle would be considered just about unbeatable – he has won the Kenilworth Grade 2 in each of the past two seasons and he has never been beaten in nine starts over a mile.
Rainbow Bridge (Liesl King)
Sands is under no illusions about the task facing his gelding and he said yesterday: “Really, you can’t look past Legal Eagle. I can hope – but I just don’t know how good my horse is. He has never met the likes of a July winner or Undercover Agent, let alone a Legal Eagle, and if I run fourth I will have to accept that my horse is inferior to them. If I were to win it that would be great and, from the point of view of his preparation and of what has happened so far, I couldn’t have asked for better.
“I don’t think he is at his peak yet but he wasn’t for the Matchem or the Cape Mile either but he has certainly come on since his last run.”
Undercover Agent is third favourite at 5-2 and Brett Crawford, who won this with Captain America three years ago, expects the Gold Challenge winner to put it up to the big two.
He said: “Legal Eagle is a great horse and, so far as I’m concerned, he is the one we all have to beat. He is at the top of his game whereas Undercover is still finding his feet. But this mile is his trip – for the moment at least – and he has done exceptionally well since his win in a 1 200m pinnacle on his return at the end of October. I am very happy with him, there is room for improvement and I am sure he will make Legal Eagle run.”
You can get 8-1 about Vodacom Durban July winner Do It Again and he is up against it, not least because this is his first outing since he put his name into the history books at Greyville.
Justin Snaith said: “We are using this as a race to get him ready for the Met. I wouldn’t call it a prep run but it’s also to see where we are with him.
“It’s a very competitive race and it’s a bit on the short side for him. He is better over further and theoretically the others have been revved up for it whereas he hasn’t.”
Snaith also runs Copper Force who, together with Hat Puntano, is the 25-1 outsider of the six runners. His claim to fame is a close second to Legal Eagle in the Queen’s Plate in January but he has never done anything like that since.
“We always have the feeling that one day he is going to do something like that again and we live in hope that he does,” said his trainer. “This is why he is running.”
By Michael Clower
