Nordic Breeze, only fourth over 1 000m last time, should be much more at home over the extra furlong of the Protea Toyota Bellville Conditions Plate at Kenilworth tomorrow and looks value at 3-1.

Her good run over this trip in the Champagne suggests she should be able to confirm the placings with 33-10 shot Goodtime Gal despite Anton Marcus taking over from an (admittedly very useful) apprentice. The Mike Robinson-trained mare has to give weight all round including 2kg to the selection and is at her best over further.

Made In Hollywood has already been nibbled at from 3-1 to 28-10 favourite with World Sports Betting and it easy to see why Joey Ramsden described the race as “too good to miss” despite the vaccination cloud hanging over the stable. On merit ratings she has 3kg in hand over 16-1 outsider Midnight Moonlight and a minimum of 5.5kg over everything else.

And it’s not just the ratings. In the Champagne she was only three-quarters of a length behind Goodtime Gal and two lengths off Nordic Breeze. She meets them on terms 8.5kg and 6.5kg better.  In normal circumstances she would be odds-on.

But will she be able to run up to her best? Ramsden wouldn’t be running her unless he thought she could but the after-effects of those vaccinations has kept all but one of the rest of the stable in their boxes. For punters that should be a tip in itself.

The bookmakers seem to have heard what they believe are the right vibes about Sovereign Spirit (by Dynasty out of the Woolavington winner Viva Maria) in the first and accordingly WSB opened her favourite at 2-1. The Candice Bass-Robinson runner gets a tentative vote despite being drawn on the slower side of the course. So too is Marcus’s mount Silver Plains who has already been supported from 6-1 to 9-2. “He is a very nice horse but the race comes a little bit too soon for my liking, “says Eric Sands. “He is too big for Durbanville and this is my last opportunity to run him at Kenilworth for some weeks.”

Levis Kuse won on three of his five rides at Kenilworth last season and accordingly 15-10 favourite Without Limits gets the nod in the Carl Greaves Brokers Work Riders’ Maiden.

The Brett Crawford newcomer Engage And Beware (Marcus) has been backed from 7-2 to 22-10 favourite for the St Dalfour Maiden but the experience of Richard Fourie’s mount Trip To The Sky may swing the balance. This one was slowly away when over seven lengths third to the highly rated Pleasedtomeetyou.

Fourie and Justin Snaith should also win the next with odds-on shot Magnificent Seven while stable companion The Boston Rose has proved profitable for this column and can go in again in the Infiniti Insurance Handicap.

By Michael Clower

The Grade 3 Spring Spree Stakes over 1200m is the main race tomorrow on the Turffontein Inside track and it is a typically competitive sprint handicap.

Splendid Garden has proven his current merit rating is competitive. This seven-year-old by Black Minnaloushe is a half-brother to Soft Falling Rain and he over raced last time early on when the jockey restrained him from a wide draw over 1400m. Therefore, he should appreciate the step down in trip and in fact his last win was over this course and distance. He is off a three point higher merit rating now but he was drawn 12 out of 12 in that win and now has a plum draw of three. Chimichuri Run is highly regarded and showed his class last time when cruising home in the Grade 3 Umkhomazi Stakes over this trip at Greyville. It does not matter how good they are destined to become, early season three-year-olds running off high merit ratings generally battle to beat toughened older horses and his merit rating is 108.

However, he should still go close as it is not a vintage line up and he is well drawn. Angel’s Power was runner up last year, albeit from a better draw than this wide one of 12. If the six point raise given to all horses in March is taken into account he is effectively five points lower this year and should be staying on. Talktothestars is a former Equus Champion Sprinter and is known for his toughness, so he might well have benefited from his six month layoff and can’t be ignored jumping from pole position, despite a tailing off of form in his last few starts. Clever Guy won well from the front last time over 1000m with blinkers on and this might be the key to him. The blinkers stay on and he has a chance if able to find a handy position without using up too much energy from his wide draw.

Tar Heel had a lot of pace in his heyday and should have come on from his last start, which followed a five-and-a-half month layoff, so he can make his presence felt from a good draw off a competitive merit rating. Premier Show is not finding his current merit rating easy although he could earn. Mujallad has a wide draw and is off a tough merit rating but he should be staying on and could earn. Finchatton has a tough draw and it will be tough as he would likely prefer further. Wrecking Ball has a lot of pace but is usually found wanting in the closing stages. Mrs. O has come into her own but won’t find it easy against the boys. Just As I Said has pace but will find it tough returning from a three month layoff from a wide draw.

The first leg of the PA should see Dan The Lad following up on his last win as he packs a strong finish and proved last time when winning from a handy position over 1160m he doesn’t have to be held up to be at his best.

In the first leg of the Pick 6 over 1450m Full Mast makes appeal as an in-form gelding by Go Deputy as this sire’s progeny improve noticeably in their four-year-old year.

In the next race over 1000m there is another horse who has come into her own, Mademoiselle, and from a plum draw she can make it a course and distance hattrick off just a two point higher mark than last time and a better draw.

The sixth is a minor feature, The Non-Black Type Ladies Stakes over 1200m, and the promising Pretty Penny is the one to beat. She cruised in last time by 4,75 lengths over this trip and might still be ahead of the handicapper. She was given the maximum eight point raise for that last win and looks to be running off a capped rating.

The eighth over 1200m should pan out well for the attractively merit rated Alex The Great.  He likes to be handy and there is not much pace on his inside so he might be able to find the box seat. Seventh Rule has good pace and will appreciate the step down to 1200m. He is widely drawn but without much pace in the race he can get to the front without using up too much. Furthermore, he has dropped to a competitive merit rating.

The Rising Legend can round up the meeting as he has some class and can use his fine turn of foot and sustained finish to mow them down after being dropped out from a wide draw.

By David Thiselton

Less than a month after finally hanging up his saddle, Piet Botha puts out his first runner as a fully-fledged trainer in the third race at Kenilworth on Saturday.

Maiden, Head Of The Pack does the honours, and comes into the bumper 16-horse event with form, boasting three places from his last four appearances.

“I’ve got him as well as I can, but he may need it slightly after four months off. He has issues with his back and knee, but should be competitive,” said the softly spoken former jockey.

Quarllo completes Piet’s complement of older horses, while he also has a sole three-year old and eight juveniles, making 11 in total.

“I am really enjoying training, although there are a lot of cost pressures getting things off the ground. I helped Glen Puller with the training when I was still riding, but it’s different when you are doing it for yourself.

“I am next to Patrick Kruyer at Milnerton, and he is always very helpful when I ask for advice. In fact, everyone I have approached has been supportive, which I appreciate,” he said.

– TAB news

All the recent rain in Cape Town is frustrating Eric Sands as he prepares his unbeaten Winter Guineas and Winter Classic winner Rainbow Bridge for a return to the fray.

The Milnerton trainer said yesterday: “The horse is doing well and I think giving him the break was one of the best things we have ever done for him. He was supposed to gallop at Durbanville on Thursday but the gallops have been cancelled because of the rain.

“He may go in the 1 200m (Pinnacle) at Durbanville on Saturday week but I don’t want to race him in that if they are going to run him off his feet, and I don’t want to gallop him too close to the race.”

Sands has long had the Matchem at Durbanville on October 6 as the first feature target of the season for the four-year-old whose objectives, all going well, will be the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate and the Sun Met.

Stable companion Silver Plains, the mount of Anton Marcus, has been opened at 6-1 for his debut in the Perpetua House Maiden at Kenilworth on Saturday. World Sports Betting makes the Candice Bass-Robinson newcomer Sovereign Spirit a warm favourite at 2-1. Master Of Spain, 18-10 in the finale, is the only favourite among Marcus’s six mounts.

By Michael Clower

One of history’s greatest racehorses, Man O’ War, was bought this month 100 years ago for US$5000 and it is interesting to note that the current South African champion sire Silvano descends directly from a mare who was bred to the same cross as Man O’ War.

It is said that some modern breeders design matings to concentrate the influence of Man o’ War through deep inbreeding. For example, he appears at least 22 times in the bloodline of American Pharoah, who in 2015 became the first US Triple Crown winner in 37 years.

Fittingly, American Pharoah had two yearlings from his first crop sold for over a million dollars earlier this month at the same Fasig-Tipton August sale at Saratoga where Man O’ War was sold 100 years ago.

Silvano has Man O’ War only twice in his pedigree.

However, his ninth dam, Etoile Filante, is by Fair Play out of a Rock Sand mare, which is the exact same sire and damsire cross which produced Man O’ War.

The similarities go further. Man O’ War won the second leg of the Triple Crown, The Preakness, on his three-year-old debut, and Silvano’s eighth dam Astrolobe, by Sir Gallahad III out of Etoile Filante, is a full sister to the Preakness winner High Quest.

It is interesting to note that Man O’ War was the runner up on the leading American Broodmare sire list 12 times and in eight of those years (1943-1950), he was runner-up to none other than Sir Gallahad III, who was the twelve-time leading broodmare sire.

Furthermore, Man O’ War was an American champion two-year-old male of 1919 and Etoile Filante produced the 1926 champion two-year-old filly Fair Star (Wrack).

Etoile Filante was a full-sister to the American champion sire Chatterton, but she has had a far greater influence on the American thoroughbred breed.

Her other stakes winner, Evening Tide by Bulldog, not surprisingly produced a stakes winner when crossed with Man O’ War’s triple crown-winning son War Admiral.

Etoile Filante foaled no fewer than seven stakes-producing daughters.

Man O’ War’s influence is particularly remarkable in that he was limited to just 25 mares a year by his owner Samuel D. Riddle. As a broodmare sire he typically had 40-50 less daughters in production than Sir Gallahad III.

As a racehorse Man O’ War won twenty races and was highly unlucky in his only defeat. He established three world records, two American records, seven track records and equalled another track standard. He was a sporting hero and attracted massive crowds to the racecourse.

According to Jockey Club records, he sired 219 winners (57.4%) and 62 stakes winners (16.3%) from 381 named foals. He led the American general sire list in 1926 and was runner-up in 1928, 1929, and 1937. He was also fifth in 1925, seventh in 1927 and 1938, and ninth in 1936. While he never led the American broodmare sire list, he ranked among the top 10 maternal grandsires no fewer than 22 times.

Man o’ War stood 16.2½ hands at maturity. He was a powerful chestnut with a slight Roman nose, prominent withers, excellent bone, virtually flawless legs and feet, and a deep girth. He was sometimes faulted as being coarse and having a slightly dipped back that deepened with age; according to Charles Hatton of the Daily Racing Form, he stood 17 hands at the highest point of his hips, an inch and half higher than his withers. He also had an unusually wide chest, though his action showed none of the paddling often associated with such conformation. His action was high and bounding but with a huge stride.

Courageous and willing on the track, Man o’ War showed some of the high-strung temperament of his dam Mahubah and maternal grandsire Rock Sand around the barn, sometimes chewing on his own hoofs in the manner of a nervous human’s chewing of fingernails. Those who knew him well considered him highly intelligent but wilful; he could be handled by persuasion but not by force. He was deeply attached to his almost equally famous stud groom, Will Harbut, and was also fond of John Loftus, the jockey who rode him throughout his juvenile season.

Will Harbut summed up Man O’ War in his famous phrase, “He was the mostest hoss there ever was.”

Man o’ War died on Kentucky’s Faraway Farm in 1947 of a heart attack, less than a month after Harbut passed away. They say the unbeatable horse died of a broken heart.

Man o’ War’s most successful sons at stud were War Admiral and War Relic, and War Relic’s branch of the male line survives today. Tiznow, Tourist, Da’ Tara, In Reality, Desert Vixen, Honour and Glory, Bal a Bali, Skywalker and Bertrando are all sire-line descendants of Man o’ War.

Female line descendants from Man o’ War include Eight Thirty, Stymie, Nijinsky, Sword Dancer, Pavot, Riverman, Jim French, Sir Ivor and Kelso.

War Admiral was also a leading broodmare sire, especially when crossed with the influential mare La Troienne and his name can be found in many modern pedigrees through such horses as Seattle Slew, Buckpasser and Dr. Fager. American Flag also contributed to Man o’ War’s modern influence as he was the sire of the second dam of Raise A Native, who is an almost “omnipresent name in American pedigrees”.

Such is the in-bred nature of the thoroughbred breed, it is always easy to find links between horses, but there can be no doubt that Silvano, upon a closer look at his pedigree, descends from a high quality female line. Closer up, his dam, Spirit Of Eagles by Beau’s Eagle, has also produced the multiple Grade 1-winner Sabiango. Silvano himself won three Group 1s in three different countries and was the Germany Horse Of The Year in 2001. This year was the third time he had won the SA National Sire’s championships.

By David Thiselton