The Vaal Classic track stages an low key eight race meeting tomorrow and Whorly Whorly could give punters a good start in the Pick 6.

Alfolk (JC Photographics)

The three-year-old Great Britain gelding was 1kg under sufferance in the Grade 3 Lebelo Sprint over 1000m and did well to finish a 2,25 length fourth to the classy Alfolk. He now runs off the same merit rating of 92 in this MR 86 Handicap over 1000m. In The Lebelo he was up with the pace early on but then dropped back and had quite a bit to do by the time they had reached the 400m mark. He then ran on well. He now has blinkers on and this is obviously with a view to him staying in the race in the middle stages. Sporting Monarch, the topweight, is a consistent sort with plenty of pace and as 1200m specialist he should get away with a 128 day layoff over this trip.

Rebel’s Champ is likely better than his last run. He was not impeded in that race but did have a lot of horses around him, whereas in his previous start, a win, he was on his own on the outside and was then sent for home early. A repeat of that tactic might see him bouncing back to his best. He’s Great won his maiden from start to finish and followed up using the same tactic. Last time he led again and then found extra when challenged at the end and failed by only 0,2 lengths. He is 1kg under sufferance, but looks to be on the up and will be a threat. Punta Cana has class and was impressive on debut over this trip. Last time he probably needed the run when well beaten over this trip in his first run for over a year. He should improve but still has 3,15 lengths to make up on He’s Great and is only 1,5kg better off, although he was a head clear of Rebel’s Champ in that race. Barrack Street was among the best sprinters as a two-year-old but despite being by Dynasty and a half-brother to Jay Peg, he is quite small and has been battling this season.

Jameson Girl has been chosen as a Pick 6 banker in the next leg, a MR 78 Handicap over 1000m for fillies and mares. She usually has good pace and a kick, but the donning of blinkers last time blunted her kick. The blinkers being removed are among the card changes for the day and she should now bounce back to her best in her third run after a layoff. She has to carry topweight, but has mixed it with better horses than these and has never been disgraced.

The next leg is the highest rated race on the card, a MR 96 handicap over 1200m, and Zouaves could use his fine turn of foot to sweep past then from a plum draw, although Torro Del Oro, Splendid Garden, Pure Blonde and Marmook should also be considered.

By David Thiselton

Arriving in Brett Crawford’s Summerveld satellite yard as a lowly 67 merit rated handicapper, the four-year-old Redeemer has taken a new lease on life and even a 14-pound increase in his rating was not enough to stop him as he romped to another facile victory at a soggy Scottsville yesterday.

He is now unbeaten in three starts over course and distance and judged on yesterday’s performance the handicappers will not be able to stop him anytime soon.

Redeemer (Candiese Marnewick)

Although the field was cut to just seven runners with the defection of Slightly Scottish with a hoof abscess, the race was run at a fair clip given the tes

ting ground. With the giant filly Call Me Winter calling the shots, Anthony Delpech was able to slot in comfortably three off the pace.

Once in the straight, Delpech had little more to do than shake up his mount and the pair drew off to win as they liked.

Baltic Amber, handy throughout, was unable to match strides but battled on into second nearly seven lengths adrift of the winner.

It may be premature to sound the trumpet for Champions Season but given his performances since arriving in KZN there is every reason to believe that Redeemer would not be out of place in the top flight.

Head Honcho, with the blinkers removed, revelled in the soft ground when making most of the running in the Itsarush.co.za Handicap, proving too smart for top weight One Man Show, winning comfortably by over a length. Short-priced favourite Legend was never going well in the ground and had run his race a long way out.

Doug Campbell looks to have a smart juvenile filly in the form of Val-La-Ree who posted her second win from as many starts in the card opener. She had hacked up on debut and started second favourite behind the grey colt Good Buddy.

It proved no race however, as apprentice Denis Schwarz kept the filly together and she was never in danger.

“I’m really excited,” said Campbell. “She looks to be a really nice filly. She has a beautiful action and I was worried that she might find it tough in the going but she handled it well.”

Ant Mgudlwa doesn’t always get the opportunities that he deserves but when the chips are down he is up with the best of them in a finish as he demonstrated on London Knight for former top rider Garth Puller in the Gold Circle Podcast Handicap. London Knight hooked up with Keagan de Melo aboard Noble Duke with 200 m to run and in a head-to-head duel, Mgudlwa got London Knight’s nose in front when it mattered.

By Andrew Harrison

The Stuart Pettigrew-trained Surcharge threw down the gauntlet to the Highveld-classic bound three-year-olds when giving weight and a beating to a quality field in the Grade 3 Tony Ruffel Stakes over 1400m at Turffontein Standside on Saturday.

Later, the Mike de Kock-trained filly Fish River stretched clear in the Grade 3 Three Troikas Stakes to build on her impressive victory over the course and distance in December.

Surcharge, a good looking colt by Gimmethegreenlight, has now won five of his seven starts. His two stakes wins to date have both been over the Standside 1400m and he has given weight to the field on both occasions. In the preliminaries on Saturday he did not strike as one who was fully wound up, which made his win all the more impressive. He relaxes well in the running and might in fact be a touch on the lazy side, but this sort of temperament is common among champions. His one fault is his lack of gate speed and in his only defeat this season, in the R2,5 million Emperor’s Palace Ready To Run Cup, this proved costly from a wide draw as he turned for home out of his ground and then experienced traffic problems in the straight. On Saturday, Strydom dropped him out after his hesitant start and he turned for home in third-last position in the twelve horse field. He moved up under the hands, but by the 150m mark still had three lengths to make up on the horse who looked the winner, Sir David Baird.

Piere Strydom

However, Strydom then gave him a backhander and he changed effortlessly into a higher gear. Sir David Baird changed legs twice in the final stages and also hung inward and this helped Surcharge’s cause. Nevertheless, he still looked to have a bit in the tank when surging past to win by 0,6 lengths. What is also palpable is that he will appreciate a step up to the mile, and maybe more. The world looks to be his oyster and he joined the unbeaten Paul Peter-trained Majestic Mambo as the leading light for the forthcoming SA Triple Crown series of races. On paper Surcharge is at least on a par with Grade 1 Cape Guineas winner Tap O’ Noth on a line through Saturday’s third-placed Wonderwall, to whom he gave 2kg and a 1,6 length beating, as the latter finished fifth in the Cape Guineas, beaten 2,35 lengths. Sir David Baird, a handy to front-running sort, was the least fancied of Mike de Kock’s three runners on Saturday.

His stablemate Yakeen, the 16/10 favourite, was forced to commit a long way out after being handy from pole position, but found little extra and finished a 6,4 length sixth. He will prefer further and in his impressive recent win over 1600m he came from off the pace. De Kock’s Silvano colt Pietro Mascagni sat behind Yakeen in the running and plugged on for a 3,7 length fourth over a trip too sharp. Fifth-placed Ideal Secret had too much ground to make up from last and will also enjoy the step up in trip in the Gauteng Guineas. The Puma was tailed off last entering the last 400m so did well to run on for seventh. Investec Dingaans runner-up Seerite was off the bit a long way out but stayed on for ninth. He will prefer further and would also likely prefer some cut in the ground.

In the Three Troikas San Fermin had a chance to restore her lofty reputation, having failed in the Fillies Mile and followed it with a good third in the Listed Swallow Stakes over 1160m in just her third career start. However, despite starting 5/4 favourite, she proved no match for the De Kock-trained Australian-bred Canford Cliffs filly Fish River. San Fermin did admittedly have a wide draw to overcome, but found a nice spot on the rail after being dropped out. However, the classy Fish River kicked from a handy position and kept her at bay before finding another gear in the closing stages to win easing up by 2,1 lengths. The relatively small San Fermin finished second.

Dame Kelly gave cheek to Fish River until the 200m mark. She held on for third ahead of the winner’s big stablemate Takingthepeace, who gave 2kg to the whole field and was staying on well. Green Top, who is by Gimmethegreenlight out of Grade 1 SA Fillies Classic-winner Caughtintheslips, also ran on well for an encouraging fifth. Fish River provided Anthony Delpech with his 100^th win of the season. He looks likely to defend his National Jockeys Championships as he rode a further two winners on the day to maintain his 25,69% strike rate and at stumps was 25 winners clear of second-placed Lyle Hewitson. Mike and Adam Azzie also scored a treble on the day and this included a courageous front-running win by the five-year-old Captain Al gelding Arctica under Craig Zackey in the Listed Wolf Power Stakes over 1600m.

By David Thiselton

Durban July hero Marinaresco is to leave his history-making trainer to join Mike de Kock for an international campaign.

Candice Bass-Robinson has decided that the option of continuing as the trainer when the five-year-old moves overseas is not practical for her. She has her own yard adjoining Summerveld as well as one of the biggest stables in Cape Town.

She said: “He goes into quarantine in the middle of the month and will go via Mauritius to Mike de Kock’s yard in Newmarket. After that nothing has been finalised but maybe Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai. He remains in the same ownership  (Marsh Shirtliff, Bryn Ressell, Mike Bass and Fred Green) and I will be sorry to see him go.”

Marinaresco set a weight-carrying record when becoming the first Durban July winner to be trained by a woman and also one of the first (if not the first) to win the race for a trainer in their initial season. His other triumphs included the Champions Cup, Winter Guineas and Winter Classic.

Last Winter, who finished one place in front of him when runner-up in the Sun Met, could be on the same plane to Mauritius following a meeting between owner Lady Laidlaw, Dean Kannemeyer and Jehan Malherbe on Friday.

Kannemeyer said: “We are all on the same track with this and we are now busy negotiating to get him out of the country. I will remain the trainer and we will go via Mauritius but we still have to decide whether we go now or wait until July but, personally, I think the sooner the better.

“There is Hong Kong in December but, if it proves the horse is not ready for that, a race I have long wanted to win is the Queen Elizabeth II Cup (won by the Alec Laird-trained London News in 1997) there in April.”

Kannemeyer fears that the horse would end up with top weight if the decision is made to wait for the Vodacom Durban July. Last Winter is a 10-1 chance for the Greyville spectacular with Hollywoodbets which has African Night Sky favourite at just over 7-1 and Marinaresco on 25-2.

By Michael Clower

Andre Nel had a welcome respite from his virus nightmare when Love To Boogie got up close home under Aldo Domeyer to land the TAB Telebet Handicap at Durbanville’s twilight meeting on Saturday.

The time was only 0.22 seconds outside Empress Club’s 1992 course record and, although this  was winner number 24 of the season for Nel,  he might well have been sitting on twice as many had it not been for the sickness.

Aldo Domeyer

He said: “Love To Boogie hasn’t had it but 25 out of the 60 of them have and we had one more this morning. However none of the youngsters has gone down with it and we don’t know whether it is viral or parasital so we are still in the dark.”

So were punters after 15-10 favourite Kingston Passage trailed in sixth of the seven runners after looking beaten early in the straight. “He over-raced and never left Greg Cheyne alone,” explained Brett Crawford. “It is back to the drawing board with him.”

The Philippi trainer, and the yard’s many supporters, had some compensation when 26-10 chance Gimmie A Cohiba got up in the closing stages under Corne Orffer in the last. Crawford had flagged this one when interviewed on Tellytrack earlier in the afternoon.

Domeyer, who also scored on So It Begins for Candice Bass-Robinson, is third on the national log with 69 winners but remains a 20-1 outsider for the title.

Justin Snaith drew a blank with his only two runners but Fifty Cents’ victory at Fairview on Friday saw him achieve his century for the 14^th successive season. He is more than R6 million clear of triple champion Sean Tarry on the national log.

Billy Prestage is having a fair bit of success with his front-running tactics and 15-1 chance Desert Lark added to the tally when leading throughout the final circuit of the Play Soccer 6 Handicap.

Prestage said: “This horse is a bit one-paced but I knew that he was very fit. The last time he ran the guy (Sihle Cele) waited for the others to come and catch him before he started riding so I told Anthony Andrews to be sure to keep him going.”

Basil Marcus stood in for younger son Adam (away on holiday) and celebrated the 35^th birthday of elder son Glenn (the Phumelela computer guru) with a double from Jeovana and Amazingly. The former was ridden by Richard Fourie who also scored two for Glen Kotzen.

By Michael Clower