The highest rated race at Hollywoodbets Scottsville tomorrow is a MR 104 handicap over 1200m and the progressive Cabo Da Cruz looks capable of making it five wins on the trot. He was a four-year-old when first winning so started handicapping off a lowly mark which has allowed him to progress. He has to overcome a four point raise for his last win and looks to have the class to do it. On That Boulevard was unlucky in the Grade 2 Post Merchants and that was his last turf start so he can go close here too. Hard To Play has a win and a third in three starts over course and distance and should also be involved.

Later there is an interesting fillies and mares MR 98 handicap over 1600m which could go to Red Al. She would have come on from her last start and is drawn in pole, as opposed to her draw of nine out of ten last time over course and distance. The topweight Twice As Smart faced tough opposition in the SA Champions Season without being disgraced and should be right there from a fair draw of five over an ideal trip. Stelvio beat Red AL last time and should also be in the shake up from a fair draw with a first time tongue tie on.

The best bet is in race three over 1200m where Maidens Prayer drops back to Maiden company after being an unlucky fourth last time in the Grade 2 Debutante Stakes over 1200m.she should hold too many guns here.

In the seventh race over 2400m Paybackthemoney impressed in his first start over this trip and off an effective four point higher mark could follow up. Before Noon tries a staying trip for the first time and looks likely to get it considering the way he fought on last time to win over 2000m at Greyville. He is only two points higher in the merit ratings and well drawn. Deposition has consistent form and stays this trip so us another possibility. Crime Victim can never be ignored in staying events although his best finish over course and distance is a runner up spot, which he has done twice, and he hasn’t won for close to two years. On The Bright Side should be coming into her own being by Ideal World and the 1, 5kg claim of Jason Gates will alleviate the burden of being 1kg under sufferance. In the last race over 1400m Mission Beach ran on well over 1200m last time and now gets a plum draw over a more suitable trip so should make her presence felt. Class Of Eight should be the shake up over a course and distance she enjoys. Wintertime has not been disgraced against a couple of fair sorts over 1200m and 1600m and from a good draw should enjoy this trip.

In the last race over 1400m Mission Beach ran on well over 1200m last time and now gets a plum draw over a more suitable trip so should make her presence felt. Class Of Eight should be the shake up over a course and distance she enjoys. Wintertime has not been disgraced against a couple of fair sorts over 1200m and 1600m and from a good draw should enjoy this trip.

By David Thiselton

Paul Lafferty said there was a valid excuse for the below par run of his highly regarded horse Share Holder on eLan Gold Cup day and he expects this horse to be a feature race contender this season.

The strapping Zoffany colt started a weak favourite for the Grade 2 Haval Motors South Africa Umkhomazi Stakes over 1200m but could only manage a 6,80 length eleventh.

However, Lafferty put it down to there being no size eight aluminium bar shows being available throughout the country that week so they had to put on normal shoes for the race and he returned with his “foot on fire.”

He had earlier ripped part of his hoof off when overreaching on the training track which explained his long layoff after an impressive 3,90 length debut win over 1000m at Scottsville on February 6.

Before his Gold Cup day engagement he had impressed in a Barrier Trial.

Lafferty felt he would likely follow the same route as his stalwart Harry’s Son did in the 2014/2015 season so the Graham Beck Stakes and the Dingaans, run over 1400m and 1600m respectively on Turffontein Standside, are the likely first targets. 

By David Thiselton

Mike de Kock said he was taking a one to two year view on getting his pending training operation in Australia going and thus his star horse Hawwaam would be racing in South Africa for the whole of this season.

De Kock commenting on Hawwaam’s starting woes said, “He is fine in the pens, in my opinion he just doesn’t need a handler, he becomes unsettled when they are standing above him.”

Hawwaam will thus be on course for the three-way clash of the century in next year’s Sun Met.

The country’s three big guns, Do It Again, Rainbow Bridge and Hawwaam are due to do battle in that race.

They were set to face each other in the Vodacom Durban July last month in an Equus Horse Of The Year decider.

However, Hawwaam had to be scratched after charging the gate and hurting himself.

Fortunately, the lameness was temporary and he was sound by the time he had returned to the parade ring.

Do It Again went on to beat Rainbow Bridge by 0,40 lengths despite giving him half-a-kilogram, thus exacting revenge for his 0,75 length defeat in the weight for age Sun Met.

De Kock still has to have stables built in Australia, work through the red tape of visa requirements and send staff over for work experience.

He said Hawwaam would obviously be a candidate to run for him over there when things were in place but it would all depend on the instructions of his owner Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. 

By David Thiselton

Justin Snaith has had two significant retirees from his stable, Oh Susanna and Snowdance, who will both be standing at Drakenstein Stud, and the rest of his top horses have just come back into light work.

Snowdance will be covered by Drakenstein’s new stallion Lancaster Bomber, who is the only Group 1-winning son of leading international sire War Front to be standing in either South Africa or the UK. A decision on who Oh Susanna will be covered by is yet to be made. 

Among the horses back in light work at the Snaith yard is Equus Horse Of The Year Do It Again.

Next year’s Sun Met is being billed already as the clash of the three titans, Do It Again, Rainbow Bridge and Hawwaam, but Snaith said, “There will be more, it is going to be a very competitive season and there are a lot of good horses around.”

One of the challenges he is facing is how to place General Franco, who was lumbered with a 103 merit rating after his debut win.

Snaith felt his career was set back six months by this rating and felt the handicappers should have allowed him one more run, where they could have seen something more, “before penalising him so drastically.”

He said the plate races usually did not stand up due to lack of entries and putting him as a young three-year-old into a handicap with such a merit rating might discourage him.

His plan was therefore to nurse him at home and build him into what the handicappers believed him to be.

He said the same had happened to Oh Susanna and the handicappers had been proven right but added if they were not proven right in this case he would be dealing with a three-time winner at most due to the mark he was being asked to start off with.

Snaith said General Franco had returned a bit shin sore after his second start but it was not enough to explain his poor last place finish.

He said jockey Greg Cheyne had reported him to be the “first horse gone” in that race.

Snaith was nonetheless looking forward to another good season and said he would have one of his strongest recent strings. He added he had particularly exciting two-year-olds.

He said his first call rider Richard Fourie would be one of his biggest assets considering the current jockey situation in South Africa where a few big names are on the sidelines while others have left for Hong Kong.

By David Thiselton

One World, winner of more than R3.3 million and beaten only twice in nine starts, may bid to resume his winning ways in the Matchem Stakes at Durbanville on October 5.

Vaughan Marshall said: “I haven’t worked out a programme for One World yet but he could possibly start in the Matchem.”

The four-year-old won a progress plate on the day of the Matchem last year and his other victories included the Langeman, Concorde Cup, CTS 1600 and the Winter Guineas. His only two defeats came in the Cape Guineas (third) when things did not go according to the trainer’s plan and in the Winter Classic in which he finished second to Vardy. Marshall last won the Matchem with Tales Of Bravery in 2010.

Stable companion Captain Of Stealth, who raised hopes for big race glory when romping home by wide margins in his first two starts, is to have his injury rescanned at the end of October but at this stage there is no suggestion that the original prognosis of being out for ten months is likely to be changed. He did the damage by rapping himself below the joint and just above the coronet.

By Michael Clower