Punters brave enough to bet at odds-on face a difficult decision with Front And Centre in the Betting World Handicap at Kenilworth today. There is not much doubt that she is the best horse in the race, and she is almost certainly better than her handicap mark would suggest, but she is not 100% and this is not her objective. In other words this is a stepping stone rather than an end in itself.

Yet at 7-10 the bookmakers are assuming that she will be able to run somewhere near her best. They are largely neglecting that she was found to have an abnormal blood count when ante-post favourite for last month’s Western Cape Fillies Championship and ended up on the sidelines as a result.

Hard Core (Candiese Marnewick)

“She has had a couple of hiccups and as a result she is going into this race a little bit underdone,” explains Brett Crawford who, in his own way, is in almost as difficult a position as the punters. “I am happy with her – I galloped her on the course last Thursday and she went well – and I am expecting a very good run. This will bring her to peak fitness but I want to see her finish the race well.”

Anton Marcus’s mount is also up against it to the extent that she is the only three-year-old in a field of four-year-olds. But, looking at the positives, the 3.5kg that the handicappers put her up for last time’s Durbanville win was hardly harsh considering the impressive way she won, making up six lengths to score pulling up.

If she doesn’t win it will be because she is short on fitness, not as a result of anything outstanding amongst the opposition. Stable companions Travel In Style (5-1) and Strawberry Fire at 33-10 are the shortest priced of them. The latter’s most recent four runs were all over a mile and, although she ran below her best at Durbanville six weeks ago, she was only beaten just over a length and a half.

Travel In Style has been dropped a point for last time’s third of seven and has the advantage of a talented 2.5kg claimer. Top weight Kamaishi (who has drifted from 9-1 to 14-1) is also ridden by a good claimer and won three off the reel a few months back. Forget last time’s below-par effort – he pulled hard early and his saddle slipped.

Fours A Crowd  is not without a chance, fellow 14-1 shot Lanark has been dropped 2.5kg but the last five runs of Regal Ruby (18-1) have all been over 400m less than this.

Crawford has a fancied runner in the first in 7-2 chance Louisa May but the Justin Snaith-trained Alsflamingbeauty (28-10) is given slight preference.

Crawford’s Northern Spy, though, can prove just too strong for Snaith’s Gimmetherain in race two while Marcus’s mount Fluttering is preferred to Madonna and Indi Anna 35 minutes later.

By Michael Clower

Image: (by Candiese Marnewick) The Dennis Drier-trained HARD CORE runs in race eight at Kenilworth today.