From desperately dry to desperately wet within a week. The weather patterns in KZN are so changeable these days that a senior weather forecaster has admitted that even three-day forecasts can be dodgy.

Racing is scheduled for the turf at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Sunday but punters are advised to keep an eye on the weather as a switch to the poly track is a distinct possibility should any more rain add to the 119mm recorded over the past week.

The wet will also have affected training schedules but the Summerveld poly track will have been in high demand this past week.

Mark Dixon holds three high cards for the Pinnacle Stakes that heads the programme where Silent Crusade can confirm that she is a contender for South Africa’s Champions Season that starts in May next year.

Dixon has gone easy on the daughter of Crusade, as she has only her ninth start in two seasons, but she has kicked off the current term on the right note, although Keagan de Melo may disagree.

Parting company with Silent Crusade at Hollywoodbets Scottsville last month will still be fresh in De Melo’s mind. It was a fearful fall and a miracle that he escaped serious injury.

De Melo was back on board the filly at her next start where he rode a cracking finish on the favourite. Tracking the pace, Silent Crusade shifted into top gear 400m out but didn’t look at all comfortable as she hung out and seemingly not too keen to go on with her effort. But De Melo kept hard at her and she gamely held off a charging phalanx headed by Generous Lady and Exclusive Quantity.

That was only her second outing since a break and given the weights and some further improvement she does rate the horse to beat.

Generous Lady will be in opposition again and she followed up that outing with a close-up seventh in a tough handicap against males, beaten under two lengths by GG’s Dynasty.

However, she is 0.5kg worse off with Silent Crusade and although she has the better draw, she does look held.

Michael Roberts, who shares a ring at Summerveld with Dixon, will know exactly what he is up against as he saddles Statute, the fill sister to Vodacom Durban July winner Legislate. The daughter of Dynasty is in good form of late and with a light weight should be competitive. The Dixon-trained She’s A Dream got it all together with a tongue-tie last start. She has ability and also has a light weight.  Apprentice Ashton Arries comes out of his time shortly and a win will boost his confidence before he faces the reality of free-lance riding.

 Anton Marcus is back in the hunt for the best rides after a lengthy spell on the sidelines and he was quickly on the phone to Duncan Howells for the ride on High Voltage in the first.

At first glance the form may looks a little patchy but if one takes into account that he has some useful feature company form and is still a maiden, Marcus appears to have picked another plum even though Howells is of the opinion that the 1000m may be a touch on the short side.

By Andrew Harrison

Aldo Domeyer has a real chance of starting what should be a rewarding day with victory in the first three races at Kenilworth tomorrow.

He starts off with Academic Gold for Andre Nel whose horses are in tremendous form and whose Cape Town strike rate of 15.9% is bettered only by Brett Crawford and Dennis Drier. 

The filly has already been backed from 3-1 to 19-10 favourite and she was unlucky not to win last time. She was beaten only a fifth of a length after becoming unbalanced when she and American Prayer bumped 100m out.

American Prayer finished 2.3 lengths farther back and it was her first run so she might well have come on enough to reverse the placings. She rates the main danger and is a big price at 7-1, particularly with Bernard Fayd’Herbe in the irons.

On Captain’s Side (13-2) is the highest-rated of the four that have been given a mark but Queen Of Quiet (28-10) has been knocking at the door and represents the blistering form of the Justin Snaith-Richard Fourie combination. Also worth noting is the Drier-trained 6-1 shot Two For Tea who finished first in a barrier trial at Scottsville and started odds-on when fourth on debut there. Newcomer Sing Out Loud does not seem particularly fancied at 17-2 and, being by Dynasty, she might need a bit further.

The next three of Domeyer’s rides are for his old boss Candice Bass-Robinson whose horses are taking time to hit their usual form this season but the stable has averaged almost a winner a meeting over the last six and many of the runners are beginning to have a should-win-next-time look about them.

That certainly applies to Turn It Up Harvey in the A Whole New World Maiden. This gelding has been second in his last two and is rated ten points clear of the three other rated runners. Unfortunately some punters have already had a bite at this particular cherry and he has gone from evens to 13-20.  Tillieangus (4-1) would need to have improved and the Nel-trained 11-2 newcomer Warrior Bling rates the danger.

Domeyer’s mount Joy Maisha is 17-10 favourite for the Ain’t Misbehaving Maiden (how refreshing to see a new approach with the race names) and her last run was better than the bare form might suggest because she was tightened for galloping room shortly after leaving the pens. According to the handicappers, who have taken the interference into account, the Argentinian-bred filly is no better than Snaith’s Whisky Tango and only half a kilo superior to her own stable companion Reef Knot. But Domeyer may make the difference.

Our old pal General Franco goes in the next after being dropped three points for that lacklustre effort in the Cape Classic. Some punters are still waiting for him to go off in front but here he looks too short at 4-1 and is best watched.

By Michael Clower

The World Sports Betting International Jockey Challenge, supported by Sun International and Air Mauritius, takes centre stage at Turffontein this weekend. The big names such as Dettori and Moore may be missing but the international team is made up of some tremendous riders who have proven themselves in the international arena.

Brazilian-born João Moreira was a relatively unknown when still riding in Singapore and part of the visiting International Team of that year, but rode tremendous races on some decidedly moderate horses to help the internationals to their first win. Any anyone who took notice will have made a bundle on Moreira in his first season in Hong Kong.

Given that the four challenge races are lowly handicaps, punters should be wary of the likely outcomes, but the riders will be giving it their all and with the internationals having nothing to go on besides the formbook and trainer’s instructions, their professionalism will be to the fore. There is the old maxim, of “good jockeys don’t need instructions and bad jockeys don’t listen anyway,” so we are in for a great afternoon’s entertainment.

The first leg of the International Jockey Challenge – good riders and not so good horses – could see the visitors off to a big start. Gelding appears to have been the key to Mike and Adam Azzie’s Al Borak who made good improvement first up after the unkindest cut of all. Although drawn wide, Haley Turner can get the internationals off to a flying start along with Fran Norton on What A Joker and International captain Rab Havlin on Jackman.

In the next leg, Starlight Express is a dangerous front runner and is much better drawn than in her last two and seasoned international Martin Dwyer rides for Geoff Woodruff. Local riders could come to the fore with Kirkconnels Lass. She does not have the best of the draw but S’Manga Khumalo has been riding like a man possessed of late. Seven Seas, with South African captain Muzi Yeni aboard, showed up well in his handicap debut when taking on stronger. He is lightly raced from a strong from a strong stable.

The third leg is a wide-open handicap. Bockscar is not the easiest ride but is having his third run after a lay-off and was doing his best work late last time out. The blinkers go on to an old soldier and Gavin Lerena can record the first win for the SA team. Biggest threat could come from the Fran Norton ridden Barron Rooney although this is a seriously difficult handicap to sort.

The final leg of the International Jockey Challenge is another puzzle but St John Gray looks to have a live contender for Haley Turner who is no stranger to the Turffontein winner’s circle. At Hand is in the right space, three runs after a lengthy break, and can get the better of the De Kock’s runner Hellofaride that obliged second time out. He should be progressive in a modest field but it is never easy first time out of the maidens.

The first two juvenile races of the current season make up the first two races on the card where the betting could prove your best guide, while the R1 million Monaco Sprint for maidens kick’s off the Pick 6 but wily trainer Mike de Kock appears to have saved a plum for the winner’s cheque and Battleoftrafalgar looks the ‘right one’.

By Andrew Harrison

Aldo Domeyer could be the jockey to follow at Kenilworth on Saturday particularly if – as expected – the extra sharpness he showed on his brief visit here in the Hong Kong close season in July is repeated.

The former Cape champion rides in seven of the eight races and his mounts include three Candice Bass-Robinson trained favourites – Turn It Up Harvey, Joy Maisha and Constable – as well as two second favourites.

Richard Fourie is also on three favourites – Queen Of Quiet, Sleeping Single, and Bayberry – and he rides for Justin Snaith in every one of the eight races. Bernard Fayd’Herbe also has a full card and, while Dynastic Light in race five is his only favourite, he also partners three second favourites.

Anton Marcus has taken five rides and, although none are favourite in the early betting, Proclaimer and Quintay are both second favourites. Quintay, trained by his nephew Adam, is the only non-Ridgemont-owned of the quintet.

By Michael Clower

There has been a recent changing of the guard at Dean Kannemeyer’s Summerveld satellite yard with long-time assistant Barbara Badenhorst, now Mrs Warren Kennedy, electing to sign up with her brother Wayne.

With seasoned trainer Alistair Gordon calling it a day at the end of the month to join Bloodstock South Africa on a full-time basis, Nicolette Roscoe, Gordon’s long-time assistant, has moved to fill Badenhorst’s shoes and Roscoe had a good first day at the office at Hollywoodbets Greyville yesterday.

The afternoon didn’t start to brightly as Warren Kennedy finally got the best out of the ever threatening Opensea in the card opener in which many thought was over a distance too short. But Opensea was not short of pace and making the running, Kennedy pinching a break at the top of the straight and Opensea kept firing to the line with the well-backed Lundy’s Lad not quite up to the challenge.

Keagan De Melo may have had to swallow the bitter pill of second in the first but in spite of escaping serious injury after an horrific fall at Scottsville last month, he has lost none of his ‘bottle’.

The Kannemeyer-trained Kapen Pride was well-back turning for home and apparently going nowhere in the fifth, but De Melo eased him off the heels of race favourite Noble Joshua, taking the gap between the favourite and race leader Pollard and punching hands-and-heels to a smart win yet narrow win.

De Melo had to work for his Kannemeyer crust in the seventh to get race favourite, Joseph Jagger home ahead of stable companion Slew City. Donovan Dillon appeared to have pinched a winning lead on the less fancied of the stable runners, but De Melo managed to extract a final burst down the ‘golden highway’ – outside of the Greyville poly track as Anton Marcus likes to refer to it – to catch Slew City in the shadow of the post.

Dennis Drier has kept faith in Escape Club and the five-year-old mare repaid in kind running as a smart winner of the sixth. Connect Me, going the trip for the first time, looked home-and-hosed inside the last furlong. But her rider seemed to get himself into a right tangle allowing Escape Club to live up to her name as she barrelled home down the ‘highway’ under stable rider Sean Veale.

Warren Kennedy is slowly but surely tightening his grip on his first national jockey’s title. At this early stage of the season he went into yesterday’s meeting 26 winner’s clear of nearest rival Greg Cheyne and extended that to 28 after he rode a clever race on Opensea in the card opener and a more comfortable win on odds-on favourite Down To Earth in the fourth.

By Andrew Harrison