Punters face a decidedly tricky card at Greyville this evening but as a stock market saying goes, ‘where there is adversity, there is opportunity’. Given the difficulty the rewards for getting it ‘right’ should be greater – that’s the theory anyway – as there don’t appear to be any stand-out runners on the card so it will boil down to doing your homework and a slice of luck.

The best race to go ‘short’ in could come in the opening leg of the Pick 6 where the two Ashburton-trained runners Starlight and Seek Moon Magic could fit the bill.

Starlight has her third run after a break and has been improving all the time. Duncan Howells has booked star apprentice Luke Ferraris, full value for his 1.5kg claim, and the step up in trip should suit.

Louis Goosen has entered Seek Moon Magic for the Gr3 Starling Stakes to be run at Turffontein on November 3 and she will need a bold showing if she is the earn a place in that field, or at least have a chance if she gets a run.

Goosen was bullish of his filly’s chances on debut but she was all at sea from the jump and only got going late. She has a tricky draw to over come here but has obviously shown good work at home.

After a relatively lean spell and a break for AHS vaccinations, Dean Kannemeyer is slowly starting to rev up his runners and Miss Smarty Pants could get the better of stable companion Cape Infanta in the Affirming Life Handicap.

Miss Smarty Pants comes off a short break but also has some decent Cape form to back her claims where she has only once been out of the money in ten outings and has yet to run a bad race.

Cape Infanta may just have needed her last run, her first in blinkers, and has done well on the poly. She has a good draw and a handy weight to add to her attraction. Others to consider are Stelvio, Heart Of A Legend and Barinois.

Net Work Jet looks to be the right one in the Spar KZN Maiden but of some concern is that his last two starts, where he was much improved, were on turf. Prior to that his two outings on the poly were well below current efforts. The balance are well exposed except for the lightly raced Captain Irish who makes his poly debut and steps up in trip. He was not far back last run and meets a weak field so could prove the biggest threat to the selection. There should be very little between fellow strugglers Lucius Fox and Belfry, a neck between them when they last met.

In the Palliative Care Handicap, Chestnuts Charm comes with some useful Cape form to back her claims and could prove better than rated.

Monte Christo does have his problems but appears to have come well for his new stable who have given him three barrier trials in his last four trips to a racecourse, winning his only start for the yard. The handily weighted Archilles took on much stronger last run and was far from disgraced. Prior to that he was decidedly unlucky at his penultimate start, a race he should have won but for traffic, and he can have a change of fortune here. Of the balance, Marshall That, who gets a rating drop and a 2.5kg claimer aboard, is over his best course and distance and is a must inclusion in all exotics.

Johan Janse van Vuuren and Anton Marcus have been a formidable combination in recent weeks and Robberg Express, a well supported winner on debut, can follow up in the Greyville Convention Centre Handicap, as he looks fairly useful.

In opposition, the grey Wendylle, who made all when shedding his maiden under Marcus, has a light weight and has a chance of following up while Cumulus is back from a short break and does look better than his current form shows.

By Andrew Harrison

She is a European star, but can she earn her stripes in the United States?

That is the history-making challenge Enable was set on Tuesday, when it was revealed she will bid to become the first horse to follow a Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1) victory with success at the Breeders’ Cup.

Enable was cut to a best-priced 8-13 (from 8-11) for the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1) after it was announced she would compete at Churchill Downs on November 3, but the contest has proven an Arc winners’ graveyard, with seven horses defeated since Dancing Brave, like Enable owned by Khalid Abdullah, was the first to try to follow victory in Paris with another in the Turf.

In all, eight Arc winners have been downed at the Breeders’ Cup, with Sakheerunner-up in the 2001 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1).

“The way Enable’s season has panned out, this race is a logical progression,” said Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to Abdullah. “She’s come out of the Arc fine, she seems to have recovered and taken it well. From that point of view we have to be very pleased with her.

“No Arc winner has won the Turf, but we’re looking for positives. Most of them to try had a hard, tough season by the time they got to the Breeders’ Cup.”

Emphasising the difference between Enable’s and Dancing Brave’s campaigns, Grimthorpe remarked: “Dancing Brave had a Guineas preparation and he was going there having run not just a lifetime best, but a world best in the Arc, so it was just a bridge too far for him.”

Dancing Brave remains the world’s highest-rated horse since the inauguration of the International Classifications in 1977, receiving a figure of 141 for his sensational 1986 Arc victory. Enable is officially rated 125 after displaying all the attributes that make her the leading lady in Europe when she landed a second Arc earlier this month at Longchamp in a thrilling finish that will also go down as one of the best in the race’s storied history.

Whether the John Gosden-trained 4-year-old will attempt to become the first horse to win three Arcs is a decision that will be made after the Breeders’ Cup.

While the daughter of Nathaniel had a hard race in the Arc in beating fast-finishing Sea Of Class by a short neck, it was just her second run of the year and she was described as only 85% fit by Gosden.

She had been sidelined after her 2017 Arc victory until September, when she made an impressive winning return on the all-weather at Kempton.

Gosden’s previous Arc winner Golden Horn was beaten at odds of 4-6 in the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Turf, and the trainer has yet to win the race, but Enable’s jockey Frankie Dettori has an excellent record.

He has won it four times, most recently in 2010 on Dangerous Midge, one of his two Turf successes at Churchill.

A transatlantic flight will be a new challenge for Enable, though she is used to travelling via her exploits in the Arc and when winning the Darley Irish Oaks (G1) at The Curragh last year.

“Air travel is an added dimension but she’s a good-natured filly when it comes to that sort of thing,” Grimthorpe added.

Abdullah’s Expert Eye, trained by Sir Michael Stoute, is also under consideration for the Breeders’ Cup, and Grimthorpe revealed the 3-year-old will miss Saturday’s QIPCO British Champions Day meeting at Ascot.

Expert Eye was a 9-1 shot for the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (G1) but could run in the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1T), for which he is 6-1 second favorite.

“He could be a possibility for the Breeders’ Cup,” said Grimthorpe. “He won’t run on Saturday as the ground is too soft.”

– Bloodhorse.com

Keagan de Melo rides at Durbanville for the first time in his career on Saturday when he has mounts in six of the eight races – five for Glen Kotzen and In The Jungle for Piet Steyn in the Tabonline.co.za Handicap.

“Glen asked me to come down for the day,” said De Melo yesterday. He went into yesterday’s Greyville meeting with 15 winners this term and is noted for being a particularly stylish jockey – “I haven’t set out to be that but it’s just the way I have been brought up to ride.”

He steps in for in-form retained stable jockey Ryan Munger who is not riding on Saturday but who is third on the national log with 40 winners. Cantata (race two) and Merkaba (race seven) are De Melo’s best chances according to World Sports Betting who had Cantata as 7-2 second favourite and Merkaba as 7-2 joint favourite when the firm posted up its prices yesterday.

Greg Cheyne, fifth with 33 winners after landing the first four at Fairview on Tuesday, rides in every race except the sixth. The Justin Snaith-Richard Fourie combination has the favourite or joint favourite in half the races.

Fourie, who won the 2006 Cape Classic on Jay Peg, will ride the lightly-weighted Clipper Captain in Saturday week’s Kenilworth Grade 3 and Snaith has also accepted with Seventh Sea (Robert Khathi) and Clouded Hill. In the Western Cape Fillies Championship on the same day Fourie partners Juniper Spring for Snaith. The filly is a full sister to last year’s winner Snowdance.

By Michael Clower

The Grade 2 Peermont Emperor’s Palace Charity Mile, which is one of the most important stepping stones into the GBets Summer Cup and will be run at Turffontein Standside on November 3, has attracted an entry of 45 horses and the joint-highest rated among them is last year’s winner Hat Puntano.

This 118 merit-rated Mike Azzie-trained Argentinian-bred subsequently ran ninth in the L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate and was then laid off for nine months until a recent outing in the Grade 2 Jo’burg Spring Challenge over 1450m on the Turffontein Inside track where well beaten.

The other 118 merit-rated entry is the Robbie Sage-trained Coral Fever, winner of the Grade 1 Premier’s Champion Challenge. He also made his reappearance in the Jo’burg Spring Challenge and ran a good 3,4 length sixth with topweight.

Liege, last year’s Summer Cup winner, is among 12 Charity Mile entries for Sean Tarry. Liege and Matador Man on 108 are the highest rated of Tarry’s entries.

The two horses at the top of the Summer Cup boards, Noble Secret and Cascapedia, are among ten entries for Mike de Kock. It is unusual for three-year-olds to run in the Charity Mile but De Kock has entered his two young stalwarts Soqrat and Alyaasaat. However, they are also entries in the traditional three-year-old race on the day, the Graham Beck Stakes over 1400m.

The only out of province entry is the Frank Robinson-trained Roy Had Enough who has won two Listed races over a mile.

By David Thiselton

One of racing’s true characters Lenny Taylor passed away suddenly on Tuesday reportedly from a heart attack.

Taylor was born into the racing game as his father was a breeder who also trained a bit. His first experience of the sport was at the Darling Gymkhana where, incredibly enough, he was riding in races when he was about five or six years old. He was unable to control a racehorse at that age so they used to lead him to the start and at the finish people would wave plastic bags at the horse to stop it.

Taylor started training in the Cape in 1971 and had some good horses like Horatius, who was a Grade 2 winner and finished second in the Cape Guineas to Bold Tropic and second in the Met to Foveros, Supreme Sovereign, who won the Grade 2 Clairwood Gold Vase, Bless My Soul, who finished second in the Queen’s Plate to Foveros, Free Enterprise, who did the Grade 2 Merchants and Grade I Cape Flying Championships double, Bold Messenger who won the EP Derby and Condorman who won the Winter Challenge at Kenilworth.

Taylor bought a number of value horses back then and Supreme Sovereign cost only R300 while Horatius cost just R1000.

Taylor left for Australia in 1994 and had about 40 winners out there.

He had a country-training license in Geelong.

One of his highlights was sending out a horse called Pride Of Pyrmont to run second in a Listed event on Melbourne Cup day. He also won a race at Moonee Valley with a horse called Regal Ruler from the very outside draw.

Taylor also trained standard-bred trotters in his time there.

He also spent a short time in New Zealand before returning to South Africa in 2003.

He renewed his training license in 2006 and trained from a Private Establishment in Mooi River that was formally used by Nick Robb.

He later managed a stud farm across the road, and helped in the preparation, breaking in and pretraining of another stud farm’s racing stock and helped transport horses to the races.

Taylor was a horseman through and through and his presence at the races in his cowboy hat will be missed by all in the racing fraternity.

By David Thiselton

Featured Image: Lenny, Marie, Nicole (SportingPost)