The two three-year-old features, run in officially “very soft” going, at Turffontein’s Inside Track on Saturday served as interesting pointers to the Highveld Autumn classics.

In the Gr 3 Tony Ruffel Stakes over 1450m, the Mike de Kock-trained Australian-bred More Than Ready filly Ektifaa beat the boys to remain unbeaten in four starts this season. The Sean Tarry-trained favourite Matador Man was slotted in behind the other six runners after his usual slow start but, was within 2,5 lengths of the filly as the field fanned off the elbow. However, Ektifaa’s superior turn of foot saw her stealing another length and she then staved off Matador Man’s strong finish to win by 0,6 lengths.

Sean Tarry (Nkosi Hlophe)

There has always been a question mark about Ektifaa’s stamina, but her time was almost two seconds faster than the Three Troikas winner’s time and this fact has given the De Kock yard the confidence to run her in the Gr 2 Wilgerbosdrift Gauteng Fillies Guineas.

Matador Man will relish the step up in trip in the Gr 2 Betting World Gauteng Guineas and will also enjoy the long straight of the Standside track. He was receiving 3kg from the 98 merit rated Doosra on Saturday and gave him a 2,9 length beating, so probably ran to a merit rating of around 100.

This puts Ektifaa’s performance into perspective as she was giving Matador Man 1,5kg.

All Fahad, beaten ten lengths into fifth, was disappointing again and will now be gelded and prepared for the Gr 1 SA Classic over 1800m.

Well beaten fourth-placed Chili Con Carne was also a touch disappointing, finding little from the front.

The Three Troikas for fillies over 1450m saw the Roy Magner-trained Anna Pavlova bursting into the Gauteng Fillies Guineas picture as she gave the Gr 1-placed Visuality 2kg and just got up to beat her.

The St. Petersburg filly has impressive hindquarters and an effortless turn of foot. The slower time does not detract from her chances of beating Ektifaa in the Gauteng Fillies Guineas as she was over racing a bit behind a slow pace. She also actually had to be eased at one stage in the straight.

The unplaced Babbling Brooke had little luck in the running and will appreciate a step up in trip as well as the long straight of the Standside track.

By David Thiselton

Rings And Things can make her experience tell against smart newcomer Snowdance in the opening maiden juvenile at Kenilworth today.

Snowdance made a big impact at the National Yearling Sale when knocked down for R2 million after some spirited bidding – and little wonder. The daughter of Captain Al is out of the Fillies Nursery winner Spring Lilac, a half-sister to All Is Secret, Secret Of Victoria and Rabiya.

“She will run well and she is going to be in the firing line,” says Justin Snaith before adding the proviso. “But there have been no racecourse gallops although, that said, we are all in the same boat.”

Justin Snaith (Nkosi Hlophe)

But not the two that have already run, and Rings And Things showed plenty of promise on Christmas Eve.  She played up in the pens but ran on well to take fourth and finish less than half a length behind fellow newcomer Call To Account who went on to win the Listed race on Met day.

Ostinato, the other who has the benefit of a run, ran well first time but beat only three home in that Met day Listed race. However she opened quite short at 9-2 with World Sports Betting which recorded significant support for Snowdance yesterday morning when she was cut from 28-10 to 13-10.

Rings And Things was eased to 28-10 while the Joey Ramsden R450 000 newcomer Made In Hollywood is on 11-2 with Remember This, by far the shortest-priced of Vaughan Marshall’s three, on 6-1.

Prince Alfred is even money for race two after his promising debut second five weeks ago but the form took a serious knock on Saturday when Tweak The Wind (third) and Pop The Question (fourth) managed only seventh and fifth behind Perovskia.

Andre Nel’s newcomer Dalibhunga makes more appeal at 5-2, given the stable’s good record with first-timers and the pedigree of this one. He is by Var out of the top class Joie De Grise who twice won the SA Fillies Sprint.

Of The Moon can prove rewarding in the Racing Association Maiden if yesterday’s 8-1 stays on offer. She disappointed when starting favourite last time but there were valid reasons. She lost a fair bit of ground at the start and was returned not striding out. On her previous run, only her second, she is good enough to win this.

The well bred Dance At Dawn is favourite at 7-2 and has finished second on her last two but this is her 14^th attempt. On adjusted merit ratings she comes out equal top with stable companion Moonsaballoon (5-1) and Of The Moon.

Seemingly only her bad draw can stop Sister Soozie in the Summer Of Champions Maiden. The 19-10 favourite ran a cracker on debut and holds Lady Vogue and Gypsy Beauty. Elegancia (4-1) looks the one for the forecast.

By Michael Clower

Trainer Colin Scott, the nephew of the late “Uncle George” Scott and the brother of Tellytrack CEO Rob Scott, died on Sunday night after a protracted battle against cancer.

The 52-year-old had held a trainer’s license since 1999 and was one of the most popular racing industryman in the country due to his ever friendly and down-to-earth demeanour.

His father Tom was formerly involved in the breeding industry and held his racing colours for decades. Colin spent his holidays as a schoolboy assisting his father, as well as the local trainers, in his hometown of Bloemfontein.  He was willing to assist Uncle George, who was the leading trainer in Bloemfontein, whenever possible.

After schooling he worked as a dealer on the Johannesburg stock exchange before becoming an assistant trainer to Uncle George and, later on, to Brian Wiid. Uncle George was one of the wisest trainers in the country and it was he and Wiid who most influenced Colin’s training methods.

Colin Scott

Colin then took out his own license and, from a small yard in Alberton close to the now defunct Newmarket racecourse, he made a good start in this toughest of professions. He moved to Turffontein when council bylaws put an end to horses being trained out of residential areas. In his training days on the Highveld he trained the like of Hale Sapieha (a seven-time winning sprinter who won a Gr 3), Cool Prospect (an eleven-time winning sprinter, who ran third in the Gr 1 Merchants). Another Ace (an eight-time winner) and Gravity (a nine-time winning sprinter, who won five-in-a-row in 2005).

In 2007, Colin moved his training operation from Turffontein down to Summerveld and cited the “nicer lifestyle” in Durban as the reason. His wife Gill was transferred at the same time and daughter Claire began attending St. Mary’s, a top private school in Kloof, where she matriculated in 2011. Colin’s father Tom also made the move down to KZN and initially acted as his assistant. He was a regular at the yard up until Colin’s passing.

Colin arrived in KZN with a string of 40 horses, 25 of whom were owned in various partnerships by brother Rob.

The move soon began paying dividends as he trained over 20 winners in a season a number of times, including a high of 27 winners in the 2010/2011 season.

Colin’s first big Summerveld-trained horse was the sprinter Extinct, who finished third in the 2009 Gr 1 Mercury Sprint in Rob’s familiar black and white checked colours.

This horse was unsound yet still won seven races, a testament to Colin’s training and horsecare skills, as well as his patience.

Colin, renowned as a hard worker, prided himself on buying inexpensive horses and training them into profitable racehorses for their owners. His good eye was partly behind his ability to achieve this goal.

Brother Rob had the same gift and this was illustrated when he bought a three-year-old by Dynasty called Sage Throne at the Graham Beck Dispersal sale in 2011. In his only two Cape starts this horse had been beaten 14,95 lengths and 8,15 lengths.

However, he was backed from 25/1 to 5/1 in his first start for Colin and won in impressive style over 1600m at Scottsville. Sage Throne won next time out too and then crossed the line first in the Gr 2 Gold Circle Derby over 2400m at Clairwood, only to be demoted after an objection. In 2012 Sage Throne gave both Colin and Rob their first respective runner in the Vodacom Durban July.

The brotherly partnership also did well out of Summerveld with another Dynasty gelding, Fourth Estate, a classy miler who won eight races, including the Gr 3 Christmas Handicap.

Another of their stalwarts has been the evergreen grey Stolen Destiny, an eight-time winner who is still competitive off a 90 merit rating at the age of nine. Colin’s final winner was the Australian-bred Mackdesi, who was backed from 28/1 to 15/1 at Greyville last Friday night and stormed to his fifth career victory. Fittingly he is owned outright by Rob.

Colin’s passing will come as a double blow to his family who have recently had to endure the death in tragic circumstances of his sister Janet.

Colin will be sorely missed by everyone in the racing industry and by all others who met him.

By David Thiselton

Andrew Fortune may possibly have dealt any hopes of a second jockey’s title a mortal blow after his antics in the fourth at Turffontein on Saturday. Nine winners behind Greg Cheyne and seven behind Gavin Lerena with nearly half the season ahead, Fortune has been prepared to tour the country in search of winners this term and his prospects of a second title were promising.

But although a supremely talented horseman, Fortune is never far from controversy, and he was at it again on Saturday. Riding Bay Style for Gary Alexander, Fortune injudiciously waved his whip in the face of third-placed Lerena-ridden Flipflash which had social media in a tizz.

Andrew Fortune (Nkosi Hlophe)

From the couch and watching numerous re-plays, the damage done to Flipflash was marginal if having any effect at all as the only blow landed appeared to be on the sheepskin noseband of Flipflash who never faulted.

The stipendiary stewards immediately called a race review followed by an objection which was not a surprise given the incident – the grounds being intimidation in the closing stages.  That it was over ruled was also not a surprise given that the incident happened a few jumps from the line and Flipflash would never have got to Bay Style in any case.

But there is often a fine line between race-riding and winning at all costs.

Racing alone up the inside fence, Fortune deliberately let his mount drift across to join Flipflash and favourite Handsome Henry. A perfectly legitimate move given that a horse generally tends to try just a little harder when racing with company.

What happened next is what got many people’s gander up. Bay Style was roughly half-a-length clear when joining Flipflash and under a soft left-handed stick. However, Fortune’s flailings changed from down the neck to ‘stirring the porridge’ with Flipflash catching one on the noseband.

Just how this incident is viewed by the authorities will be interesting in its self.

By Andrew Harrison

Punting first timers is a risky business even at the best of times and there were more than a few anxious moments come the first at Scottsville yesterday as the heavily supported Varallo made equally heavy weather of the opener.

Among the general public, the word out was ‘impossible’, those closer to the favourite were seemingly not that confident and as the race unfolded it became clear why.

Keagan De Melo (Nkosi Hlophe)

The expensive yearling purchase was backed in to 5-10 favourite but was all over the racecourse under Anton Marcus, racing like a horse that had never see a racetrack before. “He’s a laid-back horse,” said Charles Laird and Marcus later made light of his mounts antics. “If he had got beat it would not have been a train-smash.”

Cold comfort for those that had plunged!

The value of racing experience was shown as Hoppertunity, the only runner with a race under his girth, kicked on for second.

Owner Alesh Naidoo, who races under the moniker The Fire Trust Racing, was later the recipient of the Gold Circle Owner of the Month, an award richly deserved.

Much of the ra-ra surrounding the first two foals to make the course out of the superb race mare Val Da Ra, in spite of their lofty breeding, have not made an auspicious start to their racing careers. That may all change in an instant but first foal Dream De Ra was never in the hunt on debut as Rainbowinthesky showed her mettle from a tricky draw to land the second ahead of the rank outsider Khetiwe that was having her first run for Paul Lafferty.

The going down the centre of the Scottsville track appears to be as good as anywhere but Keagan de Melo had no intention of taking chances on Duncan Howells’s runner and immediately headed for the inside fence from the widest draw.

He was pressed all the way to the line by Khetiwe, only getting the upper hand late, but the balance of the field were well beaten.

Hot favourite Midnight Man gave supporters some anxious moments as he gave some cheek at the gate but eventually won well enough for Mike Miller although Rebel Circus pushed him to the line.

With two scratchings, the fifth cut up into six runners with everyone for themselves come the top of the straight. Pacemaker Heir Line kept finding to hold off Mr O’Neill and Cockade but it was a strange race and one where the form is likely to prove suspect. Roman Emperor appeared more attracted to the water lilies in the racecourse dam than racing as De Melo struggled to keep in straight while the balance made their own way to the line spread across the track.

A strange finish indeed.

By Andrew Harrison