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.

Anton Marcus

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.

Louis Goosen

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.”

Gold Standard (Liesl King)

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.”

La Favourari (Liesl King)

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

New Predator did not have much luck during Champions Season although he did turn in some smart performances including a close-up fourth in the Drill Hall Stakes behind Marinaresco and third in the Mercury Sprint to Bull Valley.

He has not been out since early July and no doubt Johan Janse van Vuuren will be warming him up for the Highveld spring when he makes his debut this term in the Gr3 Joburg Spring Challenge over 1450m at Turffontein tomorrow where the Spring Challenge and Spring F&M Challenge herald the start of the Highveld season.

New Predator

New Predator is back over what is arguably his best trip and is no doubt warming up for bigger things but so are most of the opposition with only Will Pays and Finchtatton of the nine runners having raced recently.

With the spring rains having finally arrived on the Highveld – the Vaal was abandoned on Thursday – the going is more than likely going to be on the soft side but two of New Predator’s best recent efforts have come in the soft with a win followed by a close-up second in the Hawaii Stakes to Rafeef. Regular pilot Gavin Lerena stays aboard.

Runners from the Sean Tarry yard are at their most dangerous come feature race days and he saddles a trio of which Matador Man could prove the pick. S’Manga Khumalo’s mount is usually a tardy starter that often costs him dearly but he is top class when he puts it together.

He rounded off last season with third behind Sail South in the Gr1 Champions Cup over 1800m but the majority of his racing has been over shorter. He turned in a cracking performance in the KZN Breeders beating the smart filly Dawn Calling and a repeat of that showing will see him in the firing line.

The three-year-olds Wonder Wall and Mujallad look lively prospects for the Highveld classics and just how they go here will be watched with keen interest. Wonderwall has not been out since finishing third behind Mustaaqeem in the SA Nursery but has yet to finish out of the money in four outings. He looks mighty promising as does Mike de Kock’s runner Mujallad.

Will Pays

He has not been out since July when a close-up eighth behind Eyes Wide Open in the Gr1 Premier’s Champion Stakes after threatening until the final 100m. Although not well in at the weights he does only have 51kg to shoulder so he cannot be written off lightly.

Janse van Vuuren and Lerena have a chance of a feature double with She’s A giver in the F&M Challenge. The grey only had a single outing during Champions Season where she found fellow grey Bela-Bela too strong in the Gr1 Garden Province.

But it will not be easy tomorrow. Secret Star is in cracking good form for Stuart Pettigrew, a filly that Piere Strydom knows well having ridden her in all but one of her recent starts. She does step up in trip tomorrow but finishes her races off well so the extra furlong and a tricky draw are unlikely to be a factor.

Shatoosh and She’s A Dragon look pick of the older runners while Rockin Russian was up with the best of last season’s juvenile crop and how she fares here could give some indication as to where they stand in the current pecking order.

By Andrew Harrison

She bloomed in technicolour at Chantilly and John Gosden believes racing would be the winner if Enable gets the chance to wow racegoers all over again in 2018.

A decision on whether the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe heroine will return to training at four is expected to be made by owner Khalid Abdullah within the next ten days.

But Enable would be welcomed back with open arms by Gosden, who would love to help write another chapter in the story of the wonderfilly, which began in earnest with her racecourse debut just ten months ago.

Enable (Liesl King)

The trainer was at the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale on Tuesday trying to find stars of the future to add to the superstar he has at home in Enable, who on Sunday made it five Group 1 wins in a row with her sublime performance at Chantilly.

Boasting a CV bulging with big-race wins, the daughter of Nathaniel will be a hot commodity when she does make it to the breeding sheds, but when exactly that will happen is still open to discussion.

“She’s done everything we could have dreamed of,” Gosden said. “We’ll see how she is over the next ten days and talk to Prince Khalid, who will make a decision.

“She’s only really had ten months of racing and it would be wonderful if she could run next season as she would be bit of a crowd-puller.”

Gosden watched the race in splendid isolation from what was already his favourite grandstand at Chantilly and, reflecting on the afternoon, he said: “It was very moving. There was an awful lot of pressure and a lot was expected.”

That pressure melted away as Dettori helped deliver the seventh victory of Enable’s eight-race career and the trainer now has the pleasant problem of whether she, like 2015 Arc winner Golden Horn, will have a statue on the lawn at the yard to commemorate her achievement.

He added: “She’s a very kind filly with a lovely, sweet nature, but when she gets her tack on she’s very assertive. She was expressing herself and it was great for her and for Prince Khalid.”

Having been visited on Monday by big-race partner Frankie Dettori, Enable has settled back into life at Clarehaven Stables in Newmarket, and Gosden said: “She’s in great form. She got back in very good order and had a trot and pick of grass this morning. She’s got a little cut on a hind leg from the race but is fine.”

Gosden secured several lots for Godolphin at the sales on Tuesday, with Sheikh Mohammed’s operation ending their self-imposed ban on purchasing progeny from fellow superpower Coolmore earlier in the sales season.

That pattern continued with Godolphin purchasing another son of Galileo and, commenting on the thawing of relations between the two giants of the sport, Gosden said: “The past is the past.”

– racingpost.com