Twist Of Fate will this morning make the short journey from Joey Ramsden’s stables at Milnerton to those of Adam Marcus.

Marcus said yesterday: “Twist Of Fate’s new stable has been cleaned out and is spotless for his arrival. To get a horse of this standing is very exciting. I already have some lovely unraced horses for the River Palace Racing Syndicate and they called me a couple of days ago to let me know the great news.”

The four-year-old has only been unplaced twice in 17 starts and has won over R3 million. Last season he collected the Cape Classic, Politician and KRA Guineas. He was second in the Cape Guineas, CTS 1600 and Daily News as well as third in the Vodacom Durban July and the Concorde.

He has been supplemented for the Cape Merchants on Saturday week but he has been allotted top weight of 64.5kg and his new trainer does not expect him to run.

Marcus said: “The main aim would be the Sun Met while the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate would be an option.  Before that it could be either the Green Point or the 1 800m Premier Trophy.”

By Michael Clower

Multiple champion trainer Mike de Kock, reasonably quiet by his standards for much of the early part of the current season, opened the taps last Saturday with six winners that included Barahin’s destruction of the Emperors Palace Charity Mile field. With the Highveld spring season in full swing, De Kock will have his colleagues ducking for cover as he unleashes the talent in his yard.

Two that look to have a bright future are the fillies Mabella and California Cool who line up on the Turffontein inside track tomorrow. Both facile winners on debut and going the mile for the first time, De Kock has kept them apart with California Cool contesting a Graduation Plate and Mabella a lower division handicap.

Given a rating of 86 after shedding her maiden on debut, California Cool has the more difficult task in her set weights race. She is some 20 pounds out at the weights with top rated Snow Palace, so on paper her chances of victory look remote.

That said, California Cool boasts a pedigree to die for and the manner of her maiden win suggests that the step up to 1600m will be right up her alley.

Her dam, Hollywoodboulevard, was trained by now retired Charles Laird and was not the easiest in her racing days. But she was talented and finished second to Igugu in the Gr2 Gauteng Fillies Guineas and won five races from 1200m to a mile so California Cool should not have any trouble seeing out the trip. She also showed a smart turn of foot when coming from way back in shedding her maiden so expect Callan Murray to employ similar tactics tomorrow.

Given the weights, one will need to respect the likes of Snow Palace, Green Top and Keep Smiling but California Cool could turn into something special.

Stable companion Mabella’s rating may be a little misleading as her maiden win came in a lowly workriders plate, not the type of race that De Kock would normally choose for a promising filly to make her debut.

But there was no shortage of confidence from the stable and Mabella started in the red. She duly did a demolition job on the opposition, winning unchallenged by nearly five lengths.

She faces more experienced opposition as she jumps to the mile for the first time, but if the handicappers have it right, the theory being that all have an equal chance, then she too will have her work cut out. But as mentioned, Mabella may be way under the radar and prove too strong for fellow three-year-old Celeste – Paul Peter’s filly shedding her maiden by five but also at her fifth start – and Evening Rise, with a hungry Piere Strydom riding well for Fabian Habib.

Paul Matchett and Muzi Yeni team up on the day and a brace of winners are on the cards for the combination.

I’m not sure how the risqué name of Whiskytangofoxtrot got past the keepers of the stud book but the gelding looks a fair bet in the All To Come Maiden Plate, first leg of the PA.

The gelding has come on steadily since making his debut for Dorrie Sham, and in his first outing for his new stable he came with a telling late run, making up nearly 10 lengths over the final two furlongs to be denied a neck. The mile will be right up his street and Whiskytangofoxtrot should be one of the better bets on the card with opposition trainers cursing under their breath.

Matchett and Yeni team up in the last with the well named Donderweer, the son of Soft Falling Rain primed for bigger things.

He took on a smart field first up out of the maidens and made all the running to hold off the attentions of the feature winning filly Cockney Pride.

But tactics could play a big roll and from a wide draw Yeni may have to settle his mount in behind the better drawn Promise and another recent end-to-end winner Fired Up. Paul Peter’s mare takes no prisoners, winning four of her last five starts from the front and run out of it only once with the winner in receipt of 5.5kg. Fired Up is drawn one on her outside in gate 10 with Donderweer alongside in 11.

The battle for the lead could then play into the hands of seasoned veteran Kings Archer who comes from off the gallop and promising apprentice Cole Dicken gives him 4kg relief from his set weight of 60kg. An interesting race all round.

By Andrew Harrison

A confirmed case of African Horse Sickness in Gauteng has cast an ominous shadow over the Cape Summer Season with doubts expressed about whether horses from that province will be able to travel to Cape Town.

The Sporting Post reported the outbreak on Saturday morning, saying: “This will unfortunately affect movement into the controlled area for a lot of Kyalami and Randjesfontein and it will impact on movement to the Cape area.”

Mike de Kock, after winning the Victory Moon with the Sun Met-intended Soqrat at the Vaal that afternoon, said: “Hopefully we will sort out all this Horse Sickness nonsense because, if Gauteng horses can’t race in Cape Town, then it is not a season worth talking about.”

The eight-time champion, who is also a founder director of SA Equine Health & Protocols – the company set up to re-open South Africa for direct exports, added: “In South African racing we have got our problems and we are in trouble. We need every bit of betting turnover and we need every bit of participation.

“The powers-that-be need to get their heads around things – and this has to happen. If we have no confidence to travel horses within our own country how can we give our trading partners confidence?”

By Michael Clower

One World will take on big guns Do It Again and Rainbow Bridge in next month’s WSB Green Point after justifying favouritism in the Cape Mile at Kenilworth on Saturday. But this season’s new tactics gave his jockey a few anxious moments while some of those who backed the horse thought they were going to have a heart attack.

This was very different from those smooth out-in-front performances in the likes of the CTS 1600 but maybe that defeat in the Winter Classic has been weighing on Vaughan Marshall’s mind because he explained: “I don’t think you can win big races by lugging it out in front so we have tried to teach him to settle.”

The 21-20 shot did so quite comfortably but picking up was another matter and Anton Marcus had to start riding going into the final turn. Just as he had done with M.J. Byleveld in the Matchem, One World looked in serious trouble a furlong and a half from home.

Anton Marcus, who had studied the Matchem, said: “I thought M.J. rode the most amazing race that day and here, just prior to turning for home, the horse had a tendency to lug in. I tried to get him on the rail but Corne Orffer (on Charles) kept me out – and rightly so. Early in the straight I was worried but I knew I had the ratings.”

Amazing to think that in the heat of battle, perilously perched on the back of a half-ton horse travelling at 60kph and striving to make it go even faster, he could find time to think of the handicappers’ assessments. Little wonder he is so hard to beat!

“But this horse doesn’t want to lose,” Marcus continued. “He helps you and he gets you out of it.” Sure enough he did just that, he was in front 100m out and travelling so well that his rider was able to drop his hands before the line.

It takes some doing to transform a natural front-runner into a horse that’s waited with and Marshall said: “I am proud of him. After the Green Point it’s the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate. Then it’s lullah time before we go to Durban.”

Whatever about the punters, the race and the tactics took their toll on the owners with Ken Truter saying: “I was a bundle of nerves and I am so relieved it’s over” while Etienne Braun added: “I think I aged ten years at the 400m.”

Stable companion Tap O’Noth, who ran on in the final furlong after being last much of the way, will run in the Premier Trophy on December 21 while Brett Crawford is eyeing the Peninsula Handicap (Jan 11) for fourth-placed Charles. That 1 800 race could also be on  the agenda for 50-1 runner-up More Magic who is an improver worth noting as Candice Bass-Robinson said she had expected  him to run this well.

Bunker Hunt would have finished closer than fifth but for twice being hampered in the straight. “He was very unlucky. Earmark him for next time,” advised Justin Snaith.

Snaith, four winners here last Tuesday, took the other two features with Strathdon (Marcus) and Casual Diamond ridden by Robert Khathi who was suspended for a week for causing chain-reaction interference just under two furlongs out.

Strathdon, winning for the first time for almost two years, is to be aimed at the Western Cape Stayers on Met day and Marcus said: “I had made him the horse to beat in most of the staying races in Durban but clearly he holds his best form in the Cape.”

Louis Kirsten’s Casual Diamond was running for only the second time since February and Snaith explained: “We retired her and sent her to the stud farm but she wasn’t covered. I got a phone call from my uncle Jan Mantel asking what we wanted him to do with her. So I said ‘send her back.’ Now she could be worth breeding from.”

Aldo Domeyer, whose new born son Elijah is now out of hospital and in good shape, celebrated his return by winning on Mayfern and said: “The intention is to stay for the whole Cape summer season but it depends on the Hong Kong Jockey Club and what the rota looks like. I will keep in touch with them.”

By Michael Clower

Scratchings played a leading role at Hollywoodbets Greyville yesterday. Two defections left the way open for Blackball in a seven-horse field – reduced to five – in the second. The only surprise being Top Classman under his third trainer, Kom Naidoo, edging out The Dazzler, after being touted as the exacta for the century by television commentator Kevin Shea.

“But that’s racing,” a comment immortalised by racing writer Damon Runyon.

Olmeca Black made the expected improvement to land the opening leg of the Pick 6, holding off the attentions of Mount Anderson who showed a good turn of foot on his inside. On The Bayou continues to disappoint, with Anton Marcus riding a forward race, hitting the front in the straight but unable to hold on.

The scratching of Baby Shooz with a respiratory tract infection left the way clear for Greek Sword, narrowly beaten at his last start. Not the easiest to handle, he got himself into a muck sweat before the start, but did it all right when it counted for Dean Kannemeyer and stable rider Keagan de Melo.

Fancied runner American Princess blew her start to the fifth. Rearing just as the gates opened, the stipes deemed it a fair start but she was never in the hunt from there on as Cherry Road accelerated through to give Gavin van Zyl and Warren Kennedy their second winner of the afternoon. Arizona Sunset continues to be a soldier for her owners, running on gamely for second with Pina Colada staying on for third after hitting the front at the top of the straight.

If anyone needed the ‘office’, Blackball’s earlier win provided it. Paths Of Victory, second to Blackball in the Michaelmas Handicap, franked that form as apprentice Luke Ferraris obliged for Gareth van Zyl getting the better of White Lightning and top weight Silver Rose who plugged on for third and probably not suited to a slow early gallop.

The lightly weighted Sarabi looked to have it all sewn up approaching the final 100 m of the seventh but was swamped two jumps from the line as Queen Of Alamo and La Bella roared home on her outside to relegate her to third.

The De Melo / Kannemeyer combination rounded off a wet afternoon, as Gimme Peace steamed up the inside of the track to catch long-time leader Admiral’s Guest.

By Andrew Harrison