Vaughan Marshall is bidding for his third successive Cape Guineas on Saturday – and his sixth in all – but, unlike William Longsword in 2016 and Tap O’Noth 12 months ago, One World is both unbeaten and odds-on at  8-10.

Anton Marcus’s mount has earned a reputation for outbattling challengers. Remember Kasimir in the Matchem? And last time in the Concorde it was Chimichuri Run. He also seems to have a fondness for leading from some way out.

“He doesn’t have to be in front and actually I would prefer it if he got a lead,” says Marshall. “But he has done everything we have asked of him. I have been very happy with him and I think he has come on from that last run. The horse is fit and we have Anton up so half the battle is won. We just need a bit of luck, and that is a big thing in this game.”

Chimichuri Run (best-priced 11-2) has only half a length to find on Concorde Cup running when he came at One World as if he was going to beat him. S’Manga Khumalo reckoned that the mile just got to his mount.

“It may have because he did challenge quite early,” agrees Sean Tarry who looks like adopting more patient tactics on Saturday. “He doesn’t need to be used as he was but it was his first go at the trip. The fact that he has now run the mile should help his stamina.”

Tarry, champion trainer in three of the last four seasons, has yet to win the Cape Guineas but it can only be a matter of when and he has a second strong contender in 8-1 chance Cirillo who ran out an emphatic winner of the  1 400m CTS Ready To Run. Champion Lyle Hewitson, who rode the colt in the Cape Classic previously, is in the irons.

“He is a top horse,” enthuses his trainer who would not be drawn into comparing him with Chimichuri Run (“not at this stage”). “I am not certain that he will actually be better over the extra furlong but he will certainly get the mile.”

Mike de Kock had been expected to run his runaway Dingaans winner Hawwaam who would have challenged One World for favouritism but instead relies on Soqrat in his bid to win a fifth Cape Guineas. The Premiers Champion winner was to have run in the Dingaans but was ruled out with a temperature.

Matthew de Kock reports that it only sidelined him for two days (“We didn’t feel that it was necessary to take a chance as we also had Hawwaam in the race”) and adds: “He has seen the course and is doing very well.”

Indeed he looked good when galloping at Kenilworth last Saturday and is only rated 1.5kg behind One World.

De Kock has won the Cape Fillies Guineas three times. What are the chances of last month’s Fillies Mile winner Ghaalla making it four?“That was her first time at a mile and she was crying out for the distance,”says Matthew. “She has a wide draw (12) so we are going to need a bit of luck but she will be very competitive.”

By Michael Clower

Following heavy showers at Scottsville over the weekend, and a Pen reading of 31 with some areas recording 40, Gold Circle yesterday took an early decision to move the race meeting scheduled for Scottsville today to the Greyville turf.

Times remain the same but race eight will now be run over 1800m.

The money came in spades for Upskilled when making her debut at The Vaal late last month. It was a gamble that went astray as she found one too good for her and her backers will be hard-pressed to get their money back at Greyville today as she is destined to start at much shorter odds than the 20-1 initially on offer on debut and the 7-10 when rolled over the same course and distance last Saturday in a work riders plate.

Paul Peter is riding a hot streak at present but Upskilled faces another difficult race as the likes of Ambra, Sand Queen and Marzipan Path will be no pushovers.

Sean Veale is up from Cape Town to partner a few for his boss Dennis Drier including Ambra who made marked improvement at her second start behind I’m Free. Significantly that was in yielding going and rain this past week will likely produce similar conditions at Greyville today.

Sand Queen is sure to improve on a promising debut effort while Marzipan Path, second at her last two and the now blinkered Paarl Rock are others to consider.

African Angel finished a close-up third behind second-placed Ambra when last they met and while Drier has elected to keep Ambra to a sprint, Mark Dixon has opted for an extra two furlongs for African Angel. She does not have the best of draws over the tight Scottsville 1400m but is improving quickly.’

Her biggest threat is the Drier-trained Tarocco. Beaten favourite in both starts so far, she has a plum draw and given her pedigree this seven-furlong trip should be right up her street.

Ashburton-based Shame Humby is a trainer who is shy of publicity but there is no doubting his ability as a trainer. He got one on the board with Cause And Effect at Greyville on Sunday and it may be a toss-up between his two runners Socrates and Neala in the fifth.

Socrates has an exemplary record, winning four of his eight races and he may prove the pick ahead of the carrot-loving Neala. Although Buffalo Soldier has not franked the form of Socrates’s last run, there were excuses so Socrates can follow up on his last victory.

But the opposition is strong. Autumn In Seattle is quick as is On That Boulevard who gets plenty of weight and Lyle Hewitson is in superb form. Calvary appears to have a touch of class and Louis Goosen has three useful sprinters in the line-up.

The Goosen-trained fillies Imbali and Bonnie Dawn are both speedy and in with chances in the sixth although again it is a difficult handicap. Imbali is back on her favourite surface while Marcus has taken the ride on Bonnie Dawn, always a good sign.

Clinton Binda has been a regular visitor to KZN in recent weeks and saddles Sugoi who was not far back in an Assessment Plate at the Vaal last time out while Candy Galore comes off a two-race winning streak and a stable that is bang in form.

Don Pierro is not the easiest at home and gives Gary Rich many a sleepless night but he has ability and can build on his forward showings in his last two starts. He does not have the easiest draw but looks good enough to get the better of Viking Red and Two Stroke.

Walterthepenniless has been costly to follow but he gets the blinkers on this time around and he could get one over All Aboard and Victorious Man in the last.

By Andrew Harrison

It is unusual for a Port Elizabeth horse to be seen running in features in the major centres of Cape Town, KZN and Johannesburg let alone winning them, but Yvette Bremner has already achieved the latter feat twice this season.

On Saturday her assistant trainer Carl Hewitson took the speedy Rebel King filly Princess Rebel to Kenilworth to run in the Grade 2 Southern Cross Stakes over 1000m and she led from pillar to post under Carl’s SA Champion Jockey son Lyle to win by a cosy 2,25 lengths, beating the like of Magical Wonderland.

Last month the yard took their exciting three-year-old gelding National Park to run in the Grade 3 Graham Beck Stakes over 1400m at Turffontein and he slammed some good horses, including the highly regarded Chimichri Run, by 5,8 lengths under Ryan Munger.

National Park then started favourite for the prestigious Grade 2 Investec Dingaans over 1600m but finished a disappointing fourth, beaten 7,4 lengths by the top class prospect Hawwaam.

Carl said he believed the altitude might have affected the horse in the Dingaans and indeed there is anecdotal evidence that coastal horses raiding the Highveld hit a flat spot at about the 19 day mark that can last for a week. National Park’s Dingaans run would have fallen exactly in this period and Carl also pointed out the race had not panned out well as he had found himself having to do “the donkey work” in front, unlike in the Graham Beck when sitting just off the pace.

National Park is currently having a rest, but Carl said he had been “going bananas” in his paddock and looked keen to get back into work. He will be brought back shortly and aimed at the Grade 2 Gauteng Guineas.

Carl said the yard would like to keep four-year-old Princess Rebel to the minimum trip of 1000m as her career record over this trip to date read six wins and two seconds in eight starts. This was despite her staying on strongly on Saturday over the tough Kenilworth 1000m.

The yard are thus likely going to avoid the Sceptre Stakes in Cape Town, as that is over 1200m, and are leaning towards the Grade 1 Computaform Sprint over 1000m at Turffontein as her next out of province target. They also have no plans at present for the Grade 1 SA Fillies Sprint, which is over 1200m at Scottsville.

By David Thiselton

Summerveld trainer Dennis Bosch and his staff put in hours of work just to get the four-year-old Silvano gelding Born To Perform to the races and it paid dividends on Friday night when he powered home to 4,70 length win on debut over 1600m on the Greyville polytrack under Warren Kennedy.

Born To Perform, bred by Highlands Farm Stud and owned by R Hurchund, looks a lot like his famous mother Dancer’s Daughter, a strongly-built British-bred grey whose five Grade 1 wins included a celebrated dead-heat with the legendary Pocket Power in the Vodacom Durban July of 2008.

Dancer’s Daughter was ridden in that July by Kevin Shea, who related yesterday she had a mind of her own.

She would drag riders around the training centres and on the racecourses, other times she would stop dead-still and look around and then only go when she was ready to, and would usually go faster than the rider wanted her to, and by the end of her career she was becoming reluctant to jump out of the starting stalls.

Born To Perform has inherited the strength of his mother in both mind and body

Bosch explained how the grey would walk out of the ring in the mornings and then just stand stock still and no amount of effort would budge him. He just refused to work.

He is bred in the purple and was originally bought for R500,000 at the CTS Cape Premier Yearling Sale. However, this turned out to be a shrewd pinhook for he appeared just three months later in the CTS Empress Palace Select Yearling Sale and was bought by Mayfair Speculators for R800,000.

At this year’s Super Sale at Greyville, held annually just over a week before the July, the beleaguered Mayfair Speculators dispersed a lot of their horses. Born To Perform was one of them. His reputation for being difficult had preceded him so there was little interest and Dennis Bosch purchased him for just R55,000.

Bosch, a top jockey in his day, said, “I rode him for three months myself and I won’t do that again in a hurry. We gave him a lot of time to play in the paddock too and nursed him. A lot of work was put in by everybody in the yard. He is a sound horse but the main thing was his mind started coming right. There was still the worry of how we would get him to the racecourse, but both times we have taken him there he has been exceptionally well behaved. His whole attitude has changed and we got quite excited when he won due to the amount of work we had all put in.  I don’t want to read too much into the win but while we have his mindset right we will plan another race. He has matured into a nice horse and I think he will go further. I think if he runs well next time we will know we have the horse we think we have.”

Born To Perform wore pacifiers in his barrier trial on November 30 over 1000m on the Greyville poly and he stayed on in eye-catching style under Kennedy without being asked any questions.

On Friday night he was caught wide in the early stages of the 1600m Maiden Plate from a high draw but settled well and was then given a lead into the straight when another horse came around him. He had hit the front by the 350m mark and galloped on strongly. Kennedy said. “He galloped through the line so I think there is improvement to come.”

It is early days for the grey, but he is going the right way thanks to the big team effort put in by the Bosch yard and the collective patience of themselves and owner R Hurchund.

Silvano’s progeny tend to get better with age so this horse has an interesting career ahead of him.

To date Dancer’s Daughter has produced five runners and Born To Perform is her third winner.

By David Thiselton

Rainbow Bridge was installed 3-1 favourite when Betting World opened its book on the Sun Met yesterday with Do It Again (4-1) and Undercover Agent (8-1) – both also involved in that dramatic photo finish for last Saturday’s Green Point – the next two in the market.

Legal Eagle, who won the Green Point, is a 10-1 chance along with last year’s Met winner Oh Susanna and Mike de Kock’s pair Hawwaam and Buffalo Bill Cody.

The Sporting Post revealed yesterday that Bernard Fayd’Herbe weighed in half a kilo overweight on Rainbow Bridge. This is within the rules and quite legitimate but in such a close finish it could – theoretically at least – have made the difference between fourth and first.

By Michael Clower

Featured Image: Rainbow Bridge (Liesl King)