Two MR 84 handicaps are the highlight of a lowkey nine race card at the Vaal Inside track tomorrow.

The first of them is a competitive one for fillies and mares over 1800m. Pilgrim’s Progress has always struck as one with ability and last time out stayed on quite well from behind over the too sharp 1600m. She has a good draw here and it is her third run after a layoff. She is unbeaten in three starts from 1800-2000m.

The chief danger could be Being Fabulous. She was far from disgraced over 1600m last time when setting the pace against some useful males and now has her third run after a layoff over a trip she should get. From pole position she should be able to dictate the pace, although she does have to give the field 3kg and more. Secret Potion is a leggy sort with a fine turn of foot and she probably hit the front too soon last time when having to hold on bravely over 2000m.

She might appreciate the step down in trip and off just a three point higher mark this progressive filly can make it a hattrick. Forest Express was tried in a feature after an impressive maiden win over 1600m, so must be held in high regard and she sneaks into the handicap with the minimum weight, so must have a good chance over a step up in trip she should relish.

Cold Cash wasn’t disgraced behind the like of She’s A Giver over 1600m last time in a conditions plate when way under sufferance and she has her third run after a layoff over a suitable trip. Pennington Sands could earn if repeating her last run as she has been dropped another two points in the merit ratings.

The next race is a MR 84 handicap over 1700m. Shenanigans is hard to asses. Last time, after hitting a flat spot in a 2000m event, he stormed home and just failed. He looked to need every inch of that distance, but in his previous start had shown a fine turn of foot when winning over 1600m, so he should enjoy this 1700m trip. He has been raised only two points for his last run and is well drawn. Notting Hill is a nice rangy sort and needed his last run over 1400m when fading out. He could surprise from a good draw over a more suitable trip and if he doesn’t place tomorrow, he should be followed subsequently as he has always struck as a decent sort. Diamond Dancer is a resolute galloper with a good kick and should run well fresh over a trip just a touch short of his best.

The best bet on the card could be in the last over 1100m as Inyanga put up a fine display last time from a tough draw with first-time blinkers on and Strydom remains aboard from a favourable draw.

However, the first three legs of the Pick 6 are tough and players might have to go wide.

By David Thiselton

Adam Marcus is optimistic that a deliberate pruning policy, coupled with his recent rich vein of form, will enable him to up the quality of his stable.

A first and last race double at Kenilworth on Saturday took his tally to 12 winners in the last 14 weeks but he is setting his sights more in line of those of father Basil and uncle Anton, explaining: “I am aiming to expand and hopefully these recent winners will encourage more big owners to back me – I have yet to get any of the big Cape Town ones but I am hopeful of doing so.”

He has slimmed the string down to 30 expected to pay their way, leaving room for the new intake, but one that will be staying is Red Rascal who made a winning debut under Aldo Domeyer in the opener after being backed from 9-2 to 9-10 and despite not having had a racecourse gallop.

Marcus said: “He has a long way to go to reach where we think he will get – we think very highly of him.”

Greyville is where Andre Nel is going with Silver De Lange who Anthony Andrews delivered through the racing equivalent of the eye of a needle in the TAB Telebet Handicap. The gap between the outside rail and stable companion Kampala Campari was being squeezed like an orange as he shot through it and his mount received a hefty bump in the process.

Nel said: “He will go for the staying races in Durban. He is an up-and-coming horse and I ran him here to see if he was going to be good enough to go.”

Paul Barrett recently teamed up with Ian Robinson and Francis Carruthers to buy Meliora from trainer Glen Puller (at the gelding’s R50 000 sale price plus training costs since) and they recouped R50 000 at the first time of asking when Piet Botha delivered the 6-1 chance late for a comfortable win in the Tabonline Maiden.

No surprise, though, because these owners collect winners like a philatelist collects stamps. Barrett has had 151 in 24 years and this was number 99 in ten years for Robinson including, of course, that million dollar race with Illuminator.

Ken Truter and wife Jane have had too many to keep count but the male half of the partnership was kicking himself after Domeyer completed his double on the Vaughan Marshall-trained Vincente in the Supabets Handicap, saying: “He might have won more races sooner had I not insisted on him not being gelded before!”

Greg Cheyne was also in double form – on Bendy Bullet for Eric Sands and Marcus’s Elusive Touch – while Andrews got into the same act by winning the Interbet Handicap on Samsara for his parents and Greg Ennion.

The expected Brett Crawford bonanza proved an expensive illusion – for punters as well as the trainer – and hot favourite Spring Man didn’t even make the frame behind MJ Byleveld on the Paddy Kruyer-trained Earth Hour in the Play Soccer Handicap. He was hanging from 400m out.

By Michael Clower

The Kenilworth stipes will tomorrow carry out a DNA test on All Aboard as part of their investigations into why the unraced two-year-old’s markings failed to match those in his passport when he was compulsorily scratched at Kenilworth last Tuesday.

Senior stipe Ernie Rodrigues on Saturday reiterated that it was the correct horse who appeared last week – the scanned chip matched the number in both the passport and the NHA records – and he explained: “We are doing the DNA test so that we can clear the horse to race as soon as possible.”

Rodrigues explained that the NHA receives photographs of foals and yearlings from the studs – All Aboard was sold by Klipdrif as agent for R300 000 at last year’s CTS Premier – and the one in its records shows markings that match the original passport.

However equine passports can be re-issued and that of All Aboard has been issued three times. It is the centre page of the third passport that shows markings completely different from the two previous ones.

Rodrigues said: “We still have to ascertain how this latest centre page got into the passport.”

He and his colleagues also have to ascertain which passport was presented when the Mambo In Seattle colt was granted his stalls certificate and, if it was the third one, why the discrepancy was not spotted by officials at the time.

All Aboard is trained by Dean Kannemeyer who reported that the unbeaten Hashtagyolo, favourite for the Wilgerbosdrift Gauteng Fillies Guineas before being scratched, has been back in the equine hospital in Johannesburg a second time.

She was originally sent there after suffering what Kannemeyer describes as “a wobbly” and he said: “She had recovered and was doing well when her temperature went back up again.

“She was obviously incubating a virus so I put her back into hospital for a couple of days. She is OK again now and I will probably send her down to Durban shortly.”

Kannemeyer believes it was a blessing in disguise that the wobbly happened when it did rather than at the time of the race, saying: “If you run them when they are incubating a virus it can set them back three or four months.”

By Michael Clower

Alistair Gordon has been training for 45 years but said there would have to be something wrong with you if you still not get excited about winning horse races and he experienced one of the most adrenalin-rushing moments of his career when his charge Monks Hood toyed with the Grade 2 Betting World Gauteng Guineas field at Turffontein Standside on Saturday and drew away to win by an effortless 5,5 lengths under Anthony Delpech.

Summerveld-based Gordon stood alone and watched the race having been caught halfway between an interview and owner Mary Slack’s box and said, “I couldn’t believe how well he was travelling going through the 300m mark against such a high caliber field, it was almost surreal.”

Moments earlier Gordon had wondered whether the good looking bay had gone too soon, a factor he and Delpech had discussed. However, Delpech had little choice because at the top of the straight he was travelling so much better than the horse in front of him, Greek Fire, that he had to switch outward for a run.

Gordon continued, “When he put his foot on the pedal nobody was going with him.”

Delpech pressed the button just before the 400m mark and the response was instantaneous. By the 300m mark he had hit the front and had done it effortlessly.

“Monks Hood is toying with them in the Gauteng Guineas!” boomed commentator Alistair Cohen’s voice.

The Querari gelding sauntered clear and crossed the line easing up with ears pricked having been given no more than a couple of backhanders.

Gordon was surprised by the manner of the win, but had been expecting him to run “a good race”.

He said, “I had told the media he had improved a lot since his Dingaans win.”

He then said something quite frightening for the opposition, “We will see the best of him when he runs on good ground, you could see that at Scottsville last time the way he quickened. He is maturing and getting better all the time.”

Officially the penetrometer reading was 21 yesterday, which is on the quick side of good ground, while at Scottsville the reading had been 24.

Gordon said Monks Hood had looked fine after the race. “He was chilled and eating grass at the back … he was totally relaxed.”

The horse left Turffontein at 7 o’clock yesterday morning (Sunday).

Gordon heaped praise on his staff and said, “It is like any business, you can’t achieve without the right team.”

He mentioned Monks Hood’s regular workrider Carrie Radford and all of the yard’s grooms.

Delpech gave the horse a fine ride and quickly had the horses settled with cover from a draw of seven and Gordon said, “He switches off very easily now that he has matured mentally. That is why he can show such a good turn of foot.”

Gordon will now discuss the next step with Delpech and Mary Slack of owners Wilgerbosdrift Stud, but warned, “I have done it often enough to know it is very difficult to travel up to Highveld twice in a month, it is not easy, it only gets harder, and if he were to run a bad race in the SA Classic it could wipe him out for the SA Champions Season.”

Gordon, asked about the Vodacom Durban July, said, “I don’t think he will get the July trip, definitely not, but it is just my opinion.”

The runner up Surcharge put in a fine performance considering he lacks gatespeed and was caught two wide in the running from a wide draw. He looks likely to relish the step up in trip to 1800m in the Grade 1 SA Classic.

Royal Crusade stayed on doggedly from the front, while Noble Secret and Vacquero both ran on well from well back in the running. All three should enjoy the SA Classic distance too.

The disappointment of the race was the favourite Majestic Mambo, who seemed to have his head in the air when asked to quicken from well back in the running and might not have enjoyed the quick going, although the penetrometer reading was officially the same as in his impressive Sea Cottage Stakes win. He is unbeaten in three starts over the SA Classic distance.

By David Thiselton

Frank Robinson had earmarked the Gauteng Guineas and Fillies Guineas as a likely target for Roy Had Enough and Roy’s Riviera but he may have ‘clocked’ a gallop or two at Summerveld and decided against the trip north as Monks Hood simply destroyed the Guineas field at Turffontein on Saturday.

All will be left wondering if Roy Had Enough would have made Monks Hood work any harder but he was hard-pressed to get the better of smart older horse Celtic Captain in a Pinnacle Stakes at Greyville yesterday who did not make things any easier by forcing his younger rival across the course.

All did not go according to plan for the winner, instructions from Robinson were to find cover, but in a small field it proved difficult for apprentice Lyle Hewitson who was left with daylight a lot earlier than was planned.

However, there is no substitute for class and Hewitson and Roy Had Enough fought through all their tribulations to win comfortably in the end but it was obvious that a mile is at the bottom end of ‘Roys’ optimum range.

Monks Hood is an unlikely runner in the Gr1 SA Classic but the Turffontein 1800m looks the ideal trip for Roy Had Enough.

This was Hewiston’s 284^th winner as an apprentice but there is some confusion as to whether this win equalled or bettered the record for the most winners by an apprentice in South Africa.

Stats are difficult to verify due to dodgy record-keeping but it should all come out in the wash in the next day or two.

Hewitson had extensive work riders experience and was crowned champion before being accepted at the SA Jockey Academy after matriculating at Kearsney College and his apprenticeship was cut to three years.

He had his first ride as a fully-fledged apprentice at Scottsville on March 6, 2016 and trainers were quick to capitalise on his experience and 4kg claim. In a little over three months 60 winners were in the bag and he was in with the big boys without his apprentice claim.

This proved to be a cavaletti rather than a hurdle and Hewitson’s services remained, and still remain, in high demand.

Whether he equalled or broke the record yesterday is really immaterial because with nine months of his apprenticeship still to run, his total of winners will be out of reach of most mortals.

By Andrew Harrison