Charles Laird will send a string of five horses to the big meeting in Johannesburg this weekend and they include his Gr 2 Peermont Emperor’s Palace Charity Mile runner Bold Inspiration as well as sprinter Viva La Var and Emperor’s Palace Ready To Run Cup contenders Main Submission, Top Form and Dance On Air.

Bold Inspiration has sensitive feet, so Laird runs him in special shoes that have a rubber cushion between the feet and the alumite base. However, the Summerveld trainer is still hoping for some rain to ease the current hard going in the Highveld, which has been suffering from a dry spell. There is about 29mm forecast this week in Johannesburg, 20mm of it at 60% probability and 9mm of it at 30% probability, so there is hope for at least some cut in the ground.

The five-year-old Horse Chestnut gelding Bold Inspiration began his career with Weiho Marwing and won two of four starts for him before being bought into Laird’s yard by Alesh Naidoo.

He won his first start for Laird over 1600m at Clairwood in comfortable fashion and followed up by winning twice in succession easily on the Greyville poly between 1800m and 2000m, before winning the Listed Michaelmas Handicap over 1900m on turf with topweight. He then failed in last year’s Sansui Summer Cup, but not surprisingly as he was asked to do it from the front over 2000m having travelled up to altitude.

This will be his second trip to altitude, but it is over a shorter trip of 1600m. On the other hand he will be running off a 105 merit rating as opposed to the 100 he ran off in the Summer Cup.  This was courtesy of an easy victory over 1600m on the Greyville poly last time out with topweight in a handicap.

Anton Marcus will not be able to ride him on Saturday as he is aboard Whiteline Fever for the owner who retains him, Markus Jooste. However, replacement Andrew Fortune is capable of doing a fine job too, although he won’t have an easy task overcoming a wide draw of 14, although he will come into draw eleven if the three reserve runners are scratched.

In the R2,5 million Emperor’s Palace Ready To Run Cup, Laird will also not be able to use Marcus as the latter is booked to ride the likely hot-pot favourite, the Mike Azzie-trained Jooste-owned Gr 1-winner Rabada.

Laird felt that all three of his contenders were running for place cheques due to Rabada’s presence.

Main Submission is officially the highest rated of them, but Laird was loathe to separate the trio as he said the other two, Dance On Air and Top Form, had still been learning in their races.

Main Submission, a three-year-old colt by Oracy, has always been rated by Laird as one who would keep on improving through this season. He has shown just that by winning both of his starts this term, over 1200m and 1400m respectively, and both of them were in handicaps against older horses. Anthony Delpech now gets the ride on the 97 merit-rated horse and as things stand he will have to jump from draw eight of 12 runners.

Dance On Air is an impressively strong 86 merit-rated Kahal gelding, who proved his liking for the 1400m trip last time when winning comfortably on the Greyville poly in second time blinkers. Piere Strydom takes the ride on Saturday from draw seven.

Top Form is a classy colt by Kahal who ran off an 86 in his first handicap last time out. That rating was due to a facile 4,5 length victory over 1200m on debut, which was followed by an unplaced run in the Gr 2 Umkhomazi Stakes over 1200m. He did well to finish third to older horses over 1400m on the poly in his handicap debut as it was his seasonal reappearance and his first outing in blinkers. In fact it earned him a two point merit rating increase to 88. He unfortunately has to jump from draw eleven of 12 on Saturday, but he has a good big race jockey in Raymond Danielson aboard.

Laird has won the Emperor’s Palace Ready To Run Cup twice, both times with fillies, and that included an amazing victory by Rich Girl last year from a wide draw under Marcus. Last year’s R3,85 million race is still the most expensive race to have been run in South African history.

The speedy five-year-old Var gelding Viva La Var, who has only had seven outings to date, has come back successfully from a knee chip issue to run two fine races over 1000m on the poly. The form now looks good as he was second on both occasions to Barbosa, who has transformed into a really good sprinter this year. The tall speedster has a low draw of four in Saturday’s Golden Loom Handicap over 1000m, which had cut down to 13 runners by the time of going to press, and he carries a nice galloping weight of 53kg , although a jockey is yet to be booked.

Laird said all of his runners were very well and would be travelling up on Friday night and arriving on the morning of the race.

By David Thiselton