The Vaal nine race card offers some fair opportunities tomorrow for both exotic and on the nose players.

In the second race over 1800m, a workrider’s event, Mighty Rock has everything in his favour and will be hard to beat. Last time over 2000m he had to be used up a little to get into the lead from a wide draw and he was sent for home early too. Under the circumstances he did well to only just fail, especially as he had been found to have cast a shoe. He now has the pole position draw and represents the lethal combination of Paul Peter and Charles Ndlovu. Wild Fire is never far off and represents the chief danger with first-time blinkers on. The filly Plum Field should also improve over this trip.

The third race is a Maiden Juvenile Plate over 1200m with a few first-timer involved. Got The Greenlight made a good impression on debut when matching it with an odds-on first-timer from the Mike de Kock yard. He was beaten only 2,2 lengths and the rest of the field were way back so he could also be hard to beat. However, he has to take on another ominously well-bred De Kock first-timer called Ehsaan. This Captain Al colt is out of an unraced More Than Ready mare whose dam by Red Ransom is a daughter of Tracy’s Element, a champion Australian-bred by Last Tycoon who graced the SA turf for Ormond Ferraris in the 1990s. The Bold Silvano colt Western Park is also an interestingly-bred first-timer being a full brother to Star Profile, who had useful juvenile form and finished third in the Grade 3 Pretty Polly Stakes over 1100m, just 3,25 lengths behind Green Plains and beating the like of Desert Rhythm.

In the fourth race over 1200m It Takes Two is made the best bet on the card. She has finished close up to three decent sorts in succession, Scent Of Evening, Florida Quays and Boutique, and has very little to beat from a high draw over an ideal trip. Gavin Lerena is booked and she has a high draw, which is usually favourable. Catch A Glimpse, who was 3,85 lengths behind It Takes Two last time, could be the chief danger. Hartleyfive can be involved if reproducing her debut run behind the useful Blonde Vision.

The fifth race over 1200m should be doddled by Celtic Sea, at least on paper, as she has speed and is well in at the weights. If she fluffs her lines then either Victor Forth of Benji could pick them up.

The sixth over 1200m is one of the more tricky races on an overall easy looking card. In this 1200m handicap Smoke could be the one to beat if reproducing his last run over course and distance when 5,25 lengths behind San Fermin in a race where he was under sufferance. He does make breathing noises and wore a tongue tie for the first time in the latter race. Certifiable is the most reliable PA choice in this race as he loves this course and distance and has Lerena up from a high draw. Moon Warrior has been kept mainly to 1000m but was charging home over that trip last time so might now get the 200m further trip. However, all of Snow In Seattle, Battle Creek and Prince Jordan have to also be included in the Pick 6 and Jackpot and the risk averse should consider going even wider.

In the seventh over 2400m Forest Express and Woodland’s Forest are both proven over the trip and well weighted so should fight it out. Forst Express is preferred as Woldland’s Forest will be having his first run at altitude, which will be a test over this marathon trip. Ryder can also be included in the exotics as he has eyecatching breeding for this distance, although he has admittedly failed in two previous attempts over staying trips. He is by Mambo In Seattle out of the Rakeen mare Winona, who won the Listed Queen Palm over 2600m.

The eighth is a tricky fillies and mares handicap over 1700m. The Sash represents the in form Mike and Adam Azzie yard and is drawn in pole. She has finished close to some decent sorts over distances of 1450m to 1800m and is drawn in pole. Mattina will enjoy this trip from a plum draw and Flowing Gown can never be ignored. Return To Power, Curbstone Shuffle, Elegancia, reserve runner Kapama, Poormanslady and Big Myth can also be included.

The last race over 1400m is an uninspiring maiden and should be fought out by two promising unexposed horses, Hareer and Fife. The hard knocking Targaryen Queen can also be included.         

By David Thiselton

Western Cape trainers have hit back at suggestions that they are swamping their Port Elizabeth counterparts with their better class horses and so providing unfair competition.

The Sporting Post website led on Saturday with a piece headlined Should PE Be Closed To Cape Town Raiders? and cited an unnamed local trainer commenting on Facebook: “What’s on my mind? They don’t run their horses in Cape Town yet they come to PE by the truckload and steal honey from our pot. Just have a look at the PE nominations. My argument is that they race four-horse fields in Cape Town – they don’t run their horses but will send three trucks to PE.”

Cape Town trainers have increased their raiding parties since the Met, largely because there is an average of only one meeting a week in the mother city during February and March, but last Friday’s Fairview fixture was the final straw for the Facebook writer. Justin Snaith and Candice Bass-Robinson each had two winners and Vaughan Marshall one. Alan Greeff (3) and Jacques Strydom were the only locals to get a look in.

However Mrs Bass-Robinson hit back at the criticism, saying: “In the UK and in Australia trainers travel their horses all over the place. Indeed they do this in countries round the world so why should we be confined to our own back yard? In any case a little bit of competition is healthy.

“Also it’s not just a matter of putting a horse on a float. It costs R6 000 just for the transport of the horse and then there is the flight for the assistant trainer.”

Justin Snaith fully agreed and pointed to the positive effect Cape Town runners have on Fairview Tote turnover. But the Facebook writer will no doubt be tempted to add further comment by the nominations for two of this Saturday’s Durbanville races.  The Fillies Maiden Juvenile has just six entries and the Fillies Maiden only nine. The National Racing Bureau has warned that these races may be cancelled if the numbers declared fall below six and eight respectively.

Before last Saturday Keagan de Melo’s problem with Durbanville was getting his mount’s head in front where it matters. “I’d only ridden here once before,” he related. “And that was last October when I had three seconds who were beaten by a total of less than a length.”

He made up for it this time, firing of a quick-fire treble on Waldorf Astoria for Joey Ramsden, After Glow (Adam Marcus) and the Dean Kannemeyer-trained Sacred Story.

Aldo Domeyer rode five favourites but had to be content with two winners, both for Andre Nel. Your grandmother could have won on Procrastination but the Metropolitan ride was inspired stuff. Knowing full well that his mount would stop the minute he hit the front, Domeyer waited as long as he dared (the second last stride) before nudging the 5-10 favourite’s head into the lead.

It was quite a day for 20-year-old Liam Tarentaal. He rode his 30^th winner on Eric Sands’ Capacity Crowd and doubled up in the last on the Mike Robinson-trained Fateful.

Both Vaughan Marshall and M.J. Byleveld seem to think that Tutorial will step up on his narrow win in the first but the jockey was also impressed by runner-up Mister Various, saying: “We were flying at the finish but the second horse kept coming at me. He must be a nice sort.”

By Michael Clower

Mike de Kock has followed up Hawwaam’s impressive SA Classic win on Saturday with an impassioned plea for the European Union to send inspectors to South Africa to audit the disease control measures so that horses can be exported direct to Europe once more.

He watched the race in Melbourne and said on his website: “We have a horse here that can take on the best in the world but we are being held back by quarantine protocols. We have everything in place and we are desperate for the European Union to inspect us so that we can show them what we have done, show them that the protocol is in place and that we can go and showcase our product to the rest of the world.

“Hawwaam is good enough to race against the best but we are being held back by politics – not science – and the politics are preventing South Africa, with our massive racing industry, to bring the world our thoroughbreds. We can breed world-class runners but we can’t show them to the world because we can’t compete on a level playing-field.”

De Kock is one of the original directors of South African Equine Health and Protocols which was established two years ago to remove the barriers preventing direct equine exports. It’s managing director Adrian Todd said in a Winning Ways interview last month that he aiming to get everything sorted out by June.

He said at the weekend: “The final hurdle is obtaining an audit date from the EU.  The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has requested that the EU conduct an audit of our control measures. However no commitment of an inspection date has yet been forthcoming from the EU.

“We need political assistance to push this over the line once and for all so that South Africa may finally and fully re-enter the world stage. Without exports our industry will collapse but one final political push will provide our country with a flourishing export market and an influx of much-needed foreign investment.”

By Michael Clower

The father and son combination of Robbie and Shannon Hill have been in good form of late and picked off a double at Greyville yesterday. Not so expected was Triple Fate Line in the second but Brandon Lerena rode a typically powerful finish to get the 25-2 chance home.

Moon In June, on the other hand, ran up to her 5-4 odds, putting five lengths between herself and the opposition.

Champion jockey Lyle Hewitson is way out of the title race, his defence scuppered by injury even before the start of the current season, but he continues to impress and riding a particularly good race on the filly Flichity By Farr for Alyson Wright in the Intelligent Solutions Pinnacle Stakes, giving Wright a double on the day.

Paul Peter was looking for a third victory of the weekend with the hotly fancied Fort Ember after Ring Of Fire on Friday and Rocky Night obliged under Hewitson.

But the wheels came off at the start as Fort Ember missed the break and apprentice Kabela Matsunyane rousted her up to get closer to the lead, going three wide in the process. It was too much too early and Fort Ember was a spent force early in the straight as Flichity By Farr and Our Coys joined battle with Hewitson extracting just that much more out of his filly.

By Andrew Harrison

There are question marks about the two Mike de Kock-trained favourites in the respective Grade 1 SA Classic and Grade 1 Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Classic over 1800m at Turffontein tomorrow and one, Nafaayes, is tipped to win and the other, Hawwaam, is tipped to be beaten.

Hawwaam looks to be as talented as his half-brother Rainbow Bridge but has the same tendency to over race. If he does manage to settle, as he did in the Dingaans, he has an exceptional turn of foot so it all depends on how well Gavin Lerena can relax the Silvano colt. In his favour is draw five out of nine, a better draw than the eleven out of fifteen he had in the Gauteng Guineas. Secondly it is a smaller field so he will be closer to the front when starting his run from the back. However, against him is an apparent lack of pace in the race and this might allow the classy and long-striding Gauteng Guineas winner National Park to dictate. Hawwaam still managed to run on well in the Guineas from last despite having over raced and he should still go close no matter what happens, but he does have 2,7 lengths to find on National Park. Barahin is one of only two horses of this crop who have beaten Soqrat, so is full of class and should have come on from his Gauteng Guineas run which was his first appearance of the season and in which he finished a decent third. He should stay the trip too. Those three are hard to oppose. Zillzaal could be the other one for the quartet as he is an improving sort who will relish the galloping course and distance with its long straight. Atyaab could also earn as one who won a below par Cape Derby.

In the SA Fillies Classic Nafaayes is as well drawn as she was when winning the Gauteng Fillies Guineas (GFG), where she was settled well with cover by Warren Kennedy from draw three and then stayed on well in the straight to just get up from Running Brave. This time she is drawn in pole and Kennedy has no doubt she will stay the trip despite her pedigree suggesting there could be a doubt.  She is by Exceed And Excel, who was a six furlong to seven furlong horse, and is out of a seven furlong to miler type. Ronnie’s Candy has a lot of speed being the winner of the SA Fillies Nursery. However, she is by the miler King Of Kings out of a horse who finished second in a Graded race over 1800m and furthermore she is a full-sister to a horse who has won over 2000m. Thus she should get the trip on pedigree and she has also relaxed beautifully in her last two starts. If able to get cover from a tricky draw she will go close as she appeared to be the unlucky horse in the GFG as she never had enough room to use her superb turn of foot to maximum effect. Second Request ran on well against strong older horses in the Grade 1 Paddock Stakes over this trip and has a fair draw so must have a shout. Chitengo was making eyecatching late progress in the GFG and is a progressive sort who will relish the step up in trip. Return Flight was the Equus Champion two-year-old filly and has always struck as one who will relish this course and distance. She showed last time she still has it in her and has a plum draw of two, so could dictate. Running Brave is a gallant filly who often flies under the radar. She has as good a chance as any from a plum draw of four. The dark horse is Storm Destiny who has talent and was caught wide in the GFG so not surprisingly found little extra. This time she has a good draw and could surprise. Skye Lane has to be considered as one who ran a cracking fourth in the CTS 1600, although it won’t be easy going 1800m in a Grade 1 first up at altitude. 

In the Grade 2 Hawaii Stakes over 1400m Soqrat should show why he is the highest rated three-year-old in the country from a plum draw. He has a superb temperament and a fine turn of foot, although he is up against some good horses here.

The up and coming Greener Pastures is the tip to win the Grade 3 Acacia Handicap from Silver Thursday and Cashel Palace.

Odd Rob, Walter Smoothie and Samurai Warrior are the choices for the Listed Aquanaut, although it is advisable to go wide in the exotics here. 

By David Thiselton