The in-form Andre Nel can strike again with yet another lightly-raced horse at Kenilworth tomorrow when Riverboat Queen bids to make amends for her odds-on flop a month ago.

Aldo Domeyer’s mount was only beaten half a length in an admittedly modest-looking maiden early last month but she was ominously reluctant to load when heavily backed a fortnight later and she beat only one home.

Aldo Domeyer (Liesl King)

Although nothing showed up at the racecourse Nel found her to be slightly sore on her left-fore the next morning and that evening she was running a temperature. The following morning she was lame on both front legs and still had a temperature. The vet recommended no exercise for ten days.

She opened at a tempting 9-2 for the Itsarush.co.za Maiden yesterday with World Sports Betting who had obvious form choice Golden Wine favourite at 22-10 with I Lived (13 lengths in front of Riverboat Queen) on 7-2 and Seattle Silva the same price.

The Brett Crawford runner is interesting as she also flopped last time although it was her first race for nearly three months and she lost ground at the start. “I think the 1 400m was too far for her,” says her trainer. “She is back to 1 200m, is working well and should run much better.”

Nanna Anna may just be good enough to warrant 2-1 favouritism in the first – she was unlucky not to win first time and was then fifth when Anthony Delpech rode her in the Met day Listed race. “I think she will be hard to beat,” says a back-to-form Paul Reeves.

However watch out for Casual Diamond and, in particular, fellow 22-10 chance Believethisbeauty. The R525 000 Captain Al newcomer is the first foal of the Winter Oaks winner Cause To Believe. “This 1 000m may be a bit short for her but she shows a lot of speed and she is talented,” says Vaughan Marshall.

Apollo Star is very short at 7-10 in the other two-year-old race half an hour later. The Joey Ramsden runner was fourth to Bold Respect in the R1 million Kuda Sprint so is hard to oppose.

Richard Fourie’s mount Royal Marine (11-2) is a son of What A Winter and apparently could make the frame at the first time of asking. “”I brought him to Kenilworth to gallop and he worked very well,” says Greg Ennion who, however, cautions: “He might just need it.”

Ennion, incidentally, expects Meaningful Look to go well against Riverboat Queen – “she has improved a lot from her first run.” But stable companion Mangrove, as short as 15-10 for race five, has an outside draw to contend with and so Redeemer is preferred despite not being much of a price.

By Michael Clower

Anton Marcus brings his extraordinary 27% strike rate – 33% in Cape Town – to Kenilworth for the Prawn Festival meeting on Saturday when the four-time champion has four rides for Joey Ramsden.

Marcus, who won last year’s Vasco Taverna Prix Du Cap on the Brett Crawford-trained Cuvee Brut, this time renews his partnership with Cape Fillies Guineas winner Just Sensual.

Anton Marcus (Nkosi Hlophe)

He brought her incredibly late in the classic whereas in last month’s $500 000 CTS Mile Frankie Dettori led early – he had to overcome a 15 draw – and the filly weakened well before the end to finish with only four behind her.

She is the highest-rated horse in the race, is drawn on the rails and probably has most to fear from last season’s Cape Fillies Guineas winner Silver Mountain who is drawn (8) far better than she was when fifth in the Klawervlei Majorca.

In the Vasco Food Trucks Pinnacle Stakes Marcus is re-united with last season’s Cape Flying Championship runner-up Brutal Force on whom he won the 2015 Merchants at Turffontein.

There is a R30 admission fee for the Festival this time but that includes a ticket in the draws for R50 000 worth of household appliances. Saturday’s Kenilworth racemeeting also features a carryover Pick 6 pool (Race 4 @ 14h45) estimated to top R1,8million.

By Michael Clower

The Australian-bred mare Sensible Lover has always been up there with the best of her generation but has only managed a single victory since winning the Gr3 Three Troika Stakes at just her third outing. 26 starts later she lines up in a Progress Plate over a mile at the Vaal this afternoon where she should be good enough to finally add a fourth victory to her record.

Weiho Marwing, now back permanently at his Turffontein yard after a spell at Ashburton, has always held Sensible Lover in high regard and she has contested her fair share of feature events with varying success.

Sensible Lover (Nkosi Hlophe)

Her last win came back in March last year in a set weights race on the Greyville poly where she beat the Gr1 winning filly Real Princess.

More recently she finished second in the Gr3 Sycamore Sprint behind Tiger’s Touch in her warm-up for the Gr1 L Jaffee Empress Club Stakes where she ran the top class Inara to a length in second place in a hotly contested race.

Her form since has been a touch disappointing but she comes into today’s event nicely weighted and with a pipe-opener under her girth she looks set for a big showing.

The lightly raced Noor appears to have her problems and Mike de Kock’s filly will need to improve on her recent showings when down the field in both. However, her last outing was in a Pinnacle Stakes where, although never a threat to winner Fort Ember, she jumped from a difficult gate. This will be her third outing after a five-month spell and with only seven runners in opposition she can be competitive.

Top weight My Friend Lee is in mustard form but has it all to do at these weights. She won well enough over 1400m last time out but that was in a lowly MR68 Handicap and here she gives weight to a mare who has been placed at the highest level.

Victory is not beyond the realms of possibility for Lucky Houdalakis’s charge but she will be up against a smart mare in Sensible Lover.

Houdalakis may have a better chance of finding the winner’s enclosure when he saddles Joan Ranger in the Conditions Plate over 1000m. The race has attracted a small but smart field but Joan Ranger should be up to the task.

Coming off a convincing win in a Progress Plate, Joan Ranger most recently took on the smart Green Pepper at level weights and was beaten less than a length. Joan Ranger was good enough to finish fourth behind Trip To Heaven in the Merchants and given that she is well in at these weights and Piere Strydom in the irons she rates the one to beat.

Hardly a meeting passes without Sean Tarry leading in a winner and he has two chances in Swift Sarah and Old Em, both in the race off some decent recent form. Swift Sarah is back over what looks to be a more suitable trip after finishing down the field in a 1450m event at Turffontein but Old Em only has 49.5kg to shoulder with much improved apprentice Phumi Mjoka keeping the ride. Old Em is likely to be out and gone from the jump and if given too much leeway, could be difficult to peg back.

Fort Ember will be warming up for the Highveld autumn season after her recent victory in the Gr3 Flamboyant Stakes at Greyville. Today’s race will be on the sharp side but she has enough class to make her presence felt.

The Aussie import Dame Eleanor looks to be on a similar course. She won her first two convincingly but came unstuck for the first time when sent over a mile. Mike de Kock’s charge looks to have some scope and it will be interesting to see how she goes here.

However, Joan Ranger has a lot in her favour and is taken to get home ahead of Old Em and stable companion Swift Sarah with Fort Ember and Dame Eleanor running at them late.

By Andrew Harrison

Summerveld-based Alyson Wright hit a rich vein of form over the weekend, saddling a treble at Greyville on Friday night and adding another to her weekend haul with Special Encounter in the third at the same venue yesterday.

Also in business over the weekend were “The Roy’s” for prolific owner Roy Moodley whose “Roy’s” did him proud on Friday night with Roy’s Emblem opening the evening’s card at long odds for Wright and two races later, Roy’s Pony doing the double for the Wright – Moodley combination.

Apprentice Craig Bantam rounded off Moodley’s evening as Roy’s Dollar skated home by five lengths for Lezeanne Forbes two races later.

Alyson Wright (Supplied)

Celtic Captain, with plenty in his favour, converted favouritism with a minimum of fuss in the non black-type umThombothi Handicap at Greyville yesterday for Gareth van Zyl and owner Brian Burnard. Top weight Serissa set the pace with Warren Kennedy sitting mid-field on the favourite in a six-horse race. Celtic Captain moved through with a solid challenge in the straight and quickly had the measure of the pacemaker with the filly Persian Rug rattling home from last to take second.

Wayne Badenhorst trains out of a small private establishment next door to Richmond-based trainer Doug Campbell and he saddled Spy Fiction to a fluent victory in yesterday’s opener.

All the money was for the blinkered Inyati and Moon Shadow but Brandon Lerena sent his mount the shortest way home and Spy Fiction responded to run them all down and win comfortably.

Danish Cross showed that her form on the poly was all wrong when running out an easy winner of the second for Duncan Howells and Keagan de Melo. Always handy, she looked to be under pressure shortly after entering the straight but while she kept up a relentless gallop the balance of the field fell away and the odds-on favourite won rather comfortably.

The recent passing of Colin Scott was deeply mourned by the racing community and there was a poignant moment as Silver Sails, racing in the colours of his brother Rob, scored an emphatic victory in the fourth. The Silvano gelding appears to be above average as this was his second win from just three starts and was well fancied in the market.

Anthony Delpech rode a supremely confident race having the gelding well back in the early exchanges and was last at the top of the straight. But Silver Sails picked up the bit when asked and scythed through the opposition to win under hands-and-heels.

Apprentice Serino Moodley also had a weekend to remember, booting home a double on Friday and adding a third to his weekend tally in the fifth when leading all the way on the Therese Mitchley-trained Luna Sea who was recording her second successive win.

A clever tactical ride by Anthony Delpech in the fillies handicap saw Strategic Move out of trouble and a clear run to win her first race on the turf for Sean Tarry, holding favourite Accidental Tourist at bay. The latter had a troubled passage, only getting a clear run with the race all but over.

By Andrew Harrison

Andre Nel is determined not to be hurried in his search for a replacement when Aldo Domeyer takes up his post with Candice Bass-Robinson at the end of the month – and there is a possibility that Domeyer could still be involved.

Nel said: “I have approached a couple of jockeys but they can’t give me an answer while another has approached me. It will be the boss’s (Sabine Plattner’s) decision but we are not going to rush into anything and, if we have to freelance for a couple of months, then we will.

“Aldo is still putting in all the hours and being very professional about everything. He wants to continue to ride work for us and I will put him on those for which he is free.”

Domeyer certainly earned his R5,375 percentage on Kampala Campari in the mile handicap at Kenilworth on Saturday as the 13-10 favourite fought it out with Earth Hour and Richard Fourie – a hard man to beat at the moment – for much of the final furlong and secured a short head verdict only on the nod.

Andre Nel and Aldo Domeyer (Supplied)

He had a much easier time of it on Straat-Kind in the 1 000m maiden with the even money newcomer leading just under two furlongs out and striding away like a good thing.

Nel said: “She wasn’t on the list for Durban but she might be now. However I don’t think she is a star by any means. I probably had her more ready than I would have wanted with a first-timer as she came here on New Year’s Eve but had to be scratched after being injured in transit.”

Domeyer is bullish about Kampala Campari, Nel’s 40th winner of the season, and said: “He is on the up and he is improving. There are exciting times ahead for him.”

Most of Nel’s horses have class written all of them – appearance as well as pedigree – but for trainers working their way up from the bottom rung of the ladder with bargain basement-level stock life can be very difficult. Few work harder than the busy Paul Reeves and his family for whom this has been a frustrating and largely unrewarding season.

But that all changed on Saturday when Grant Behr landed a 98-1 double on Finn’s Rebel and Sunshine Lady to treble the stable’s score for the campaign. Apparently Finn’s Rebel was particularly satisfying.

Reeves, who has high hopes for Nanna Anna on Wednesday, explained: “Finn’s Rebel works like a machine at home – I’ve got nothing that can go with him, he kills everything. But he has been very disappointing on the racecourse.”

It is about this time of year that Vaughan Marshall unleashes his Scottsville Grade 1 contenders and the well-backed Valedictorian certainly looked the part when coming home the best part of five lengths clear under MJ Byleveld in the first.

However the Milnerton trainer played down expectations, saying: “He is a nice colt but there will be better than him around.”

Cheryl Gabler has owned horses for over 20 years but the Geoff Woodruff-trained Aviatrix, the middle leg of Domeyer’s treble, is the first for which husband Reiner has had his name in the racecard. Needless to say, he will never match his wife’s racing record. She was there when Sea Cottage dead-heated for the Durban July half a century ago and she still has a hair of the horse’s tail to prove it.

Brett Crawford is more concerned with this year’s race and, while neither Scriptwriter nor Argo Solo will make the line-up, they cemented their trainer’s third place on the national log and put him on the 67 winner-mark.

By Michael Clower