Captain And Master has had his fair share of bad luck at Greyville, most notably when running into traffic in the Gr2 Golden Horseshoe on July day last season. Since then he has been campaigned at the top level by Sean Tarry, his last outing being in the Gr2 Hawaii Stakes where he was friendless in the market with favourite Soqrat all but home and hosed according to punters.
It turned out not quite that simple as Soqrat, in spite of turning in a tremendous performance, was not able to hold off the relatively unfancied six-year-old Zouaves. Captain And Master was also making late headway and beaten less than two lengths into fourth.
Tarry appears to have picked the right race for Captain And Master to score his second success this term when he lines up in the Morris Vee Sports Bet Progress Plate over 1400m on the Greyville turf on Sunday.
He does face some useful younger opposition, notably Marchingontogether and Mr Greenlight, so this will be no walk in the park for the Highveld raider.
Marchingontogether ran no sort of race in the Gauteng Guineas when tried in blinkers and Gavin van Zyl made no secret that he was expecting better when back on home turf.
His confidence was not misplaced as Marchingontogether held off the attentions of older stable companion Blackball, this over 1950m.
Marchingontogether does appear to be equally effective over Sunday’s shorter trip but given that this is Captain And Master’s optimum distance, the latter gets the nod.
One who could put them all to bed is Mr Greenlight. Nothing went right in his trip to Cape Town where all three of Duncan Howells’s runners on the day ran way below par. Prior to that Mr Greenlight had booked his place on the float to Cape Town with a thoroughly convincing victory in a Graduation Plate.
Mr Greenlight has had over a month to recover from his ill-fated trip south and needs to be included in all calculations.
Of the balance Affranchi has yet to find the promise that he showed earlier in his career and the filly Twice As Smart looks held by Mr Greenlight given her last outing where she started favourite but that was on the poly track and she could well prefer the turf.
KZN trainers have been relatively quiet as far as getting their two-year-olds up and running in comparison to their out-of-province counterparts, possibly a combination of barrier trials and many not wanting to push their young charges on the synthetic track on debut.
It’s turf on Sunday and the card opener is littered with runners that have trialled well and it is up to punters to test their skills at reading gallops and taking notes on the habits of trainers – because that is essentially what a barrier trial is.
Just how far behind or how far in front a horse finishes in a trial is immaterial. A trial needs to be gauged on individual showings, and what can be expected from different trainers. Some trainers make use of them as trial gallops, others as a shop window for horses that are up for sale and others just letting their charges go through the motions because the rules say they have to. Over time just how the ‘form’ of particular trials work out becomes apparent.
Seasoned trainer Dennis Drier is one of the shrewdest in his profession but Yessiricanboogie, a seven-length winner on debut, and Pearl Of Asia, a narrow winner at cramped odds in his debut, have rather compromised trial winner Ninotto.
From a pole position draw, Ninotto is likely to start at short odds in spite of the smart showings of Double Games, who simply cruised through his trial and may be the biggest threat to the selection, and the more experienced African Warrior and Chief Officer.
Let the games begin!
By Andrew Harrison
