Winter Series winner African Night Sky, who deliberately missed last Saturday’s Matchem in order to start his campaign later, may now begin at Kenilworth on 11 November.

Jonathan Snaith said: “We are looking at the 1 400m Pinnacle that day. He will then go on to the Green Point on 2 December before running in the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate and the Sun Met.

“He is doing amazingly well and I think he will be a better horse this season. He has matured and has more substance than he did when he won the Winter Series.”

Jockeys in South Africa will be glad that they operate in a much more relaxed environment than their counterparts in Mauritius.

Robert Khathi, who has just returned from his first stint on the island, said: “The Gambling Police have taken over racing and they raid jockeys’ houses. They came knocking at my door at 10.00pm one night when I was asleep. There were 15 of them and they searched the house.”

They didn’t find anything because there was nothing to find but Khathi was struck by the general air of suspicion. “If people see two jockeys together somewhere they often seem to think they are plotting something and they will take pictures which can end up in the papers.”

Despite the unsettling circumstances Khathi did well in Mauritius and finished up equal third on the log with 14 winners from 98 rides.

He said: “My trainer, Shirish Narang, is in only his second season and, while he had no big horses, he was doing well. I am riding freelance once more and I am looking for rides.”

By Michael Clower

Gold Standard showed he is very much in contention for the two top Kenilworth races when finishing an honourable and unlucky fourth in the World Sports Betting Matchem Stakes at a packed Durbanville on Saturday.

Off for eight months, giving weight to most of the field and a gallop short, he was as friendless as if his Facebook page had been deleted and he drifted from 12-10 to 9-2. Twice he was squeezed against the rails by second-placed Table Bay – and at one stage Richard Fourie had to stop riding – yet his mount was beaten less than two lengths into fourth.

The stipes were most unhappy about the second incident and announced that they intend holding an inquiry while Fourie said: “Gold Standard is not a 1 400m horse but I would just about have won If I’d had a clear run. We are going to lock horns hard with Legal Eagle this season.”

A well-satisfied Glen Kotzen added: “It was a lovely run considering everything and it will be the Green Point next.”

Our Mate Art, the 10-1 winner, will renew rivalry in the December 2 mile Grade 2 on a kilo worse terms. He had the advantage of a recent run and Aldo Domeyer said afterwards that he always felt he was going to win.

Candice Bass-Robinson added: “He has improved since last season when he fractured a splint bone early on and when the Winter Derby was miles too far for him.”

Table Bay, who started favourite, was beaten less than half a length and Anton Marcus reported: “I thought he ran a great race.” So did the horse’s trainer but Joey Ramsden was less than happy about the training restrictions.

He said: “I was pleased with the horse and the way he settled – indeed I am not convinced that a mile will be beyond him – but I feel very let down and disappointed that I wasn’t allowed to give him a gallop.”

The jury is still out on whether La Favourari gets any further than sprint distances. Almost immediately after he was loaded Bernard Fayd’Herbe’s mount reared right up and smashed his way through the gate leaving his unfortunate rider hanging onto the uprights. The gelding had blood on his mouth when he galloped back into the parade ring and was promptly scratched.

Magical Wonderland will be tested over seven furlongs for the first time in the Choice Carriers on 28 October after stretching her unbeaten run to four with the performance of the day in the Fillies Progress Plate. The 8-1 chance, giving away lumps of weight and running for the first time since May, looked too far back to count early in the straight but, when Domeyer switched her into gear, she accelerated as if she was fitted with a supercharger.

Mrs Robinson said: “She is not very big but she is an athlete. I don’t know if she will stay the 1400m because she is a half-sister to Magico (second in the Computaform Sprint) and she is so quick.”

But Domeyer has no doubts, explaining: “What is in her favour is that she waits for you to tell her what to do, and you can pull her out without her losing momentum.”

Gimme Six, who also came from well back to take second in the Diana, will go for the top fillies races but she is the subject of a new training strategy.

Justin Snaith said: “I’m doing things differently this season in that I’m not revving the horses up for their early races. It means biting my lip but hopefully it will work.”

Goodtime Gal, backed down to 2-1 favouritism, benefitted from a typically bull-by-the-horns Marcus ride, striking for home early in the straight and Mike Robinson again has both the Majorca and the Paddock on her schedule.

Snaith took the male Progress Plate with the Grant van Niekerk-ridden Kasimir who suffered from sore shins last term – “I’m not going to run him a lot this season either but I would like to have him primed for the summer” – but the Brett Crawford-trained Umkhomazi and KZN Million winner Al Mariachi could be a better prospect. He was beaten less than three lengths into third despite conceding 6kg.

Many of the huge crowd seemed more interested in the braais than the racing but it was the largest Durbanville attendance in my near-12 years in the country. Some can remember the days when even a Wednesday meeting attracted 5 000 people but Snaith said: “It was the biggest I’ve seen here since I rode at the Cape Hunt amateur meeting 20 years ago.”

By Michael Clower

If you had been in a horse racing quiz, the race paused at the 50 m mark and asked who had won the third at Greyville yesterday, nine out of ten will have been confident of Alraune.

Hot favourite Lady Val required all the considerable experience of Anton Marcus to get her home ahead of the more experienced Alraune with Marcus praised as the “consummate professional” by James Goodman. Marcus nursed his mount for much of the race as the penny refused to drop, but once balanced up and only Alraune ahead of her, the former champion picked up his filly and asked for maximum.

Lady Val quickened in an instant and buried Alraune four jumps from the line to win going away.

“I think she’s very good,” said Goodman, “and she will get 10 furlongs and further. I ended up with her as a weanling and although we put her on various sales we did not get the price that we paid for her.”

“She may just be the best filly that I’ve trained,” said the veteran trainer. Big words after just a maiden victory, but it was a showing good enough to give substance to Goodman’s claim.

Lady Val was the seventh win of a successful weekend for Marcus but he does face an inquiry for his ride on Table Bay in the Matchem Stakes where he raised the ire of the stipendiary stewards for possibly keeping Gold Standard a little too tight on the fence.

Bidding for four straight yesterday aboard favourite World Dreamer, he got involved in a tangle with Brandon Lerena as he shifted across the bows of Edge Of Glory. The two jockeys went at it, whips waving in barely legal fashion, seemingly oblivious of apprentice Ashton Arries sneaking March Preview through on the pair’s inside.

Arries got his apprenticeship off to a rocky start after a couple of indiscretions threatened his riding career but he has put that behind him and made the most of his reprieve.

“I want to be champion apprentice and a champion jockey,” he said candidly earlier this year in his now customary deadpan delivery.

The legendary Michael Roberts should know what it takes and recognises a rising talent. “He has what it takes. He has the right attitude although he can be a little cheeky. But he studies form and often tells me things that I have not picked up. That’s was you need.”

Arries rode a double for Roberts on Friday and March Preview was an added bonus yesterday for another legend of the saddle, Garth Puller.

By Andrew Harrison

It took Louis Goosen a little time to set up his Ashburton stables after deciding to move from his Vaal yard, home for close on two decades, but not long to fathom the Ashburton training tracks. But he did heed advice in that regard. “Duncan (Howells) was a great help. His father and my father rode and trained together in PE and we grew up together. He was free with his advice and I appreciate that.”

It was obviously good advice from KZN’s Champion Trainer as Goosen saddled a treble on the Greyville poly on Sunday. “Should that have been four?” he pondered watching some smart work on the short track at Ashburton on Wednesday.

Goosen can add to that tally on the Greyville poly tonight where Bonnie Dawn and Haddington look the pick of his five runners on the evening.

Haddington comes back to half the distance of his last start when possibly finding the 2400m a touch out of his compass, but has excellent form over shorter and in spite of a coffin draw, he does stay further than a mile and Gunter Wrogemann, also riding as wave in KZN, is unlikely to hesitate in taking the strapping son of Ideal World to the front.

An aid in Haddington’s quest for a third win is that a number of the opposition are returning from a lay-off and likely to be short of a gallop, so his biggest threats likely to be Master Shogun and Sweet Refrain.

Bonnie Dawn can kick off the evening for Goosen when she steps out in the First Group Handicap where she shoulders top weight but takes a drop in class from her last Pinnacle Stakes event when four lengths off the smart Sommerlied.

The filly shows lots of speed and more importantly appears to have taken to the synthetic surface. She was not far off Grade 1 winning Guiness on her poly debut and more recently ran Gee Wizz to a head giving the runner-up 6kg. That was a showing good enough to see her home against some seasoned but aging opposition.

Champion trainer Sean Tarry has been ominously quiet in the first couple of month of the new season and the opposition can expect a tsunami of runners when the Highveld spring season kicks off starting at Turffontein tomorrow. But Tarry has a more than able lieutenant on Deshone Steyn who runs his KZN satellite yard and the filly Kahula can go one better in the Steelbank Merchants Handicap. It is a difficult Fillies and Mares Handicap where Kahula returns from a break but she is consistent and her pedigree suggests that the poly track will suit. With Anton Marcus in the saddle, she had a lot in her favour.

Top weight Leisure Trip has been a model of consistency since arriving from the Highveld but without success. He poly form is smart and with apprentice Serino Moodley given her 2.5kg relief she looks a threat to Kahula.

As does Fullfillyourdreams. Robbie Hill’s filly caused a major upset when landing the Bloodstock South Africa Million at Scottsville, beating winners and in the process shedding her maiden.

The field this evening is possibly a touch weaker but she does have to contend with a difficult draw which could prove her Achilles heel.

By Andrew Harrison

Gold Standard is the star attraction at Durbanville tomorrow but last season’s Sun Met fourth faces a stiff task in the World Sports Betting Matchem Stakes.

Richard Fourie’s mount has to overcome an eight-month absence but a bigger problem could be his limited preparation. “He has only had one gallop and it was a soft one,” says Glen Kotzen. “I had planned to give him a second but the gallops were closed. I’m just hoping his class can pull him through but there are some good sprinters in the field and they will make him go.”

He is the best horse in the race but at the 12-10 offered by the sponsors he looks much too short. Second favourite Table Bay has never really lived up to the expectations generated by his brilliant Cape Classic win – maybe the likes of me overestimated him – and his third in the Cape Guineas (over three lengths behind Gold Standard) was considered a disappointment at the time.

He just might come back to his best here. Certainly it would be no surprise to see Anton Marcus dictating things and kicking unassailably clear early in the straight. But at only 5-2 there is better value to be had elsewhere.

Probably not with 11-2 chance Copper Force, though. “His ten draw is not going to help. We will have to drop him out and come from the back,” says Justin Snaith. “It’s going to be a question of whether he can get there in time.”

La Favourari comes out the same as Table Bay on adjusted merit ratings and only two lengths behind Gold Standard. He has won his last four and Bernard Fayd’Herbe is a wily old fox who will have spent some time working out all his tactical options, particularly from pen nine. A slow start or a Copper Force-style drop back could be fatal but his real problem is that his mount is a sprinter.

Such horses are sometimes able to last home over this easy 1 400m. Can this one do so? “We are not sure,” answers Andre Nel. “But we are taking a chance because of the way the course is running at the moment.”

At 20-1 he makes the most appeal of all. You could back him each way but, if his stamina runs out before the end, he will probably drop back out of the placings. A saver on 25-1 shot Silicone Valley might be a better option. Things didn’t go well for him last time – Piet Botha couldn’t get in – and, but for his recent drop in the ratings, he would come out the equal of Gold Standard at the weights.

Black Cat Black (Brett Crawford: “I will be disappointed if he is not in the first four”) and Our Mate Art have the considerable advantage of a good recent run and apparently it would be folly to dismiss 14-1 chance Always In Charge even though he has to give weight all round and has been off for eight months. “He had a gallop at Kenilworth about three weeks ago and he won’t need the run,” warns Vaughan Marshall who was in blistering form here on Wednesday.

Marcus’s mount Goodtime Gal makes a lot of appeal at 6-1 in the Diana after winning a sprint 18 days ago (Mike Robinson: “She has come on nicely and she will enjoy the trip”) but the vibes are even better about 8-10 hotpot Gimme Six.

“Some of the others are quite fit but our filly had a gallop at Kenilworth and it was very good,” says Snaith. “She went on her own but she was impressive.”

By Michael Clower