Punters face a tricky evening at Greyville where they are confronted with a card of generally weak maidens and lower division handicaps. For a variety of reasons, horses at the lower end of the merit rating scale cannot always be relied upon to hold form and often one or other with little obvious ability but feeling good on the day has punters scratching their heads at the improved form.

Anton Marcus

That said, Paul Lafferty’s runner Cupking looks one of the better bets on the card when he lines up in the second, opening leg of the PA. With a merit rating far superior to anything else in the field and runner-up in his last two, he will never get a better chance to shed his maiden. Possible threat could come in the form of Mighty Mississippi from the Doug Campbell yard but the four-year-old has already had 13 stabs at winning and although seldom far back he tends to lack extra when it counts.

With a winning strike rate in the region of 27% it is little wonder that Anton Marcus is aboard more than his fair share of favourites but there is a double edge to his sword as often his mere presence in the saddle is enough to convince backers that he’s on the right one.

Marcus does however, sleep with the form book under his pillow, and he may have picked the right one in Enchanted Drawing for James Goodman in the third. The gelding has shown the poly track to be his preferred surface and the addition of blinkers last time out saw him improve behind winner Roy’s Past. Marcus and the extended trip could finally see him in the winner’s enclosure.

But he is by no means home-and-hosed. There are six “Roy’s” carded this evening, two of them taking on Enchanted Drawing. Yogas Govender saddles the oddly named Roy Is Slow but who looked quite speedy when making marked and obviously unexpected improvement at his second outing finishing a close-up second to favourite Media Circus at odds of 55-1. A repeat effort will give Marcus something to think about. Alyson Wright has booked Anthony Delpech for Eastern Echo after his improved showing while Roy’s Flyer and the now blinkered Fire Bolt could surprise.

Byron Foster does a sterling job for Andre Nel at Sabine Plattner’s Summerveld satellite yard and the lightly raced At Long Last can live up to his name and notch his second win in the fourth. Although rested and having only his second run out of the maidens, the gelding has improved all the while but still comes into the race off a five-point lower rating than his last start. He is also course and distance suited which adds to his appeal.

For some bizarre reason, the death of a stallion often heralds a spate of winners, and the passing of AP Answer this week could herald back-to-back wins for his daughter Fashion Talk. She backed up two seconds with an easy victory last time out and although she takes on males her form is good. However, this is not a race to go light in the exotics with upset written all over it. The Ashburton-based trio of Enlightenment from the Duncan Howells yard and the Lowan Denysschen pair of For Ever and Principate are others to consider.

The ‘Donkey’ takes on the ‘Taxi’ but ‘Harry’ could have ‘Da Wheels’ in the sixth. Roy’s Taxi has been too quick for Harry da Wheels in their last two meetings but Candice Bass-Robinson’s runner is 3kg better off at the weights this time around which should be enough to reverse the placings.

A runner to keep an eye on is Delamere. Gavin van Zyl’s charge has had two outings on the poly since arriving from the Highveld and caught the eye behind another ‘Roy’, Roy’s Rolls Royce, and looks primed for a big showing.

By Andrew Harrison

A handsome son of AP Indy out of Pas De Reponse by Danzig, AP Answer sadly died at Clifton Stud after a severe colic attack. A hard decision was made to put the horse down due to his suffering.

AP Answer (Candise Marenwick)

A stallion with an unusal facial marking of a blaze that started halfway down his nose, his 16hh size was misleading. He was a compact stallion with mighty hindquarters which he passed onto his progeny.

AP Answer was a dream come true for Peter Blyth when the advert for his prospective sale arrived in Peter’s inbox – the stallion was a combination of all of his favourite stallions that he had seen overseas on a trip to Kentucky in America, which included the supreme greats AP Indy, Seattle Slew, Danzig, Mr Prospector and Storm Bird – the latter is in the female line of AP Answer through his fourth dam South Ocean.

Blyth has always held Danzig in very high regard and had plenty of success with Allied Flag at stud, a son of Danzig that produced Vodacom Durban July winner Classic Flag for Clifton Stud.

AP Answer produced the likes of Gr1 and Gr3 placed Beckedorf and was crowned Zimbabwe’s Champion Stallion for the season 2015/2016 with Clifton Stud as Zimbabwe’s Champion Breeder.)

His daughters and full sisters Print The Pounds and Duffi’s Call flew the flag high north of the South African border, whilst his South African horses to impress include Stakes Placed By Jove and Cutting Edge who took home the winnings from the KZN Yearling Sale Million.

– KZN Breeders

Candice Bass-Robinson has split with her retained stable jockey Grant van Niekerk who is to ride freelance from now on.

Van Niekerk would not comment when contacted yesterday but the Milnerton trainer said: “We have decided that we are going to go our separate ways. Grant is going to go freelance and we will also freelance [as regards jockeys] for a while.

Grant Van Niekerk (Nkosi Hlophe)

“There are no hard feelings or anything like that. It’s just that we decided that this might be best, and we will see how we go from here.”

Mike Bass caused some surprise when he picked Van Niekerk to be his number one two and a half years ago. Just turned 23, the rider was young and comparatively inexperienced compared with the likes of Karl Neisius and Bernard Fayd’Herbe whose boots he was being asked to fill.

But he slipped into the job as if it had been made for him, promptly put himself into the 100-plus winner-a-season bracket and won both the 2015 Paddock and Majorca for the stable on Inara.

Last season was even better. He won three more at the very top level on Inara as well as the Champions Cup on Marinaresco after so nearly snatching the Vodacom Durban July on the three-year-old.

The stable seemed to take a little while to hit top form this season – Mrs Robinson’s first at the helm – but the horses were really motoring by Sun Met day. Marinaresco might have failed to produce his very best in the big one but Nightingale gave her trainer her first Grade 1 in the Klawervlei Majorca.

True, the stable jockey went for the wrong one –Silver Mountain was only fifth – but the pair shared in a lucrative CTS $500 000 with Live Life.

Aldo Domeyer has long been a key player in the Bass Racing riding arrangements but he has commitments to Sabine Plattner and Andre Nel that seem to take priority.  Certainly Mrs Robinson’s phone looks like being hot with jockeys suddenly wanting to ride work!

Van Niekerk’s decision to let three interference suspensions roll over until later this month looked a sensible course of action at the time. Now he is probably wishing to be in the public eye – or at least trainers’ eyes – without that interruption. But he has already shown that he is too good a jockey for this to be much more than a temporary setback.

By Michael Clower

There are chances of good runs from several of Mike de Kock’s Blue Stable representatives at this weekend’s two meetings at Meydan – eight go to post on Thursday evening, five on Saturday afternoon.

Daqeeq (Race 2, Meydan Classic Trail on Turf over 1400m, Jim Crowley) is one of the most interesting runners. Sheikh Hamdan’s Australian-bred by former Dubai World Cup winner Medaglia D’Oro won his 1200m debut on turf in May 2016 in the fashion of a decent horse and has been brought to the desert with sand racing as his ultimate objective.

De Kock commented: “Daqeeq is a nice horse, he has a US sand pedigree so we’re expecting him to do well in Dubai, but of course he’s had to do some travelling to get here. The competition is strong, so we’re starting him off in this turf race to see how he goes, to get some confidence. After this, we’ll look at the Listed Al Bastikiya over 1800m on sand. Megnaas (Christophe Soumillon) ran a poor race first time out on sand, but we’ve drawn a line through that. We’re switching him to turf and a much better run is likely.”

Mastermind (Bernard Fayd’Herbe), is one of the joint highest-rated runners in Race 4 over 1200m on turf. He has fair form over the course and distance and is well exposed, and De Kock said: “Mastermind’s 105 rating is a bit high, that will need to drop before he’ll be fully competitive again, he has a place chance.

Another Australian-bred, former South African racer with excellent form is three-year-old Fursa (Soumillon), who will have her first run on sand on her Dubai debut, The UAE 1000 Guineas over 1600m on dirt. “Fursa is smart, we know that, but one can never be certain on this surface. They either deal with the sand here, or they hate it.  Fursa is by Hard Spun, who is a predominant stallion on dirt, but there are no guarantees. Godolphin have a smart filly in the race, it looks a tough first call for our filly after her travels,” De Kock said.

Nine-year-old Anaerobio is still doing fine in his work and he has a chance to earn another stake for the stable in the Range Rover Handicap over 1400m on turf.  Pat Cosgrave gets the ride. The stable choice of three in the race is Tahanee, who was fancied to go close to winning both her Meydan runs to date and will go to the start well fancied, again. “She is extremely well and we’re hoping for a big run,” De Kock said.  Johan Strauss, the problematic six-year-old entire, is expected to be in need of his first outing in almost a year. He’s talented, but will improve for the run.

Mike feels that Whistle Stop (Jim Crowley) is a horse that can yet win a race in the desert, despite having been a hard one to train. He’s having another run in Race 7, a handicap over 1800m on turf, and De Kock said: “If we can get him Whistle Stop to relax and race handier, he can definitely finish in the money. We’re going to use pacifiers to this end and I’m expecting him to be thereabouts.”

COMMENTS FOR MEYDAN, SATURDAY 11 FEBRUARY:

Race 3: Gr3 Firebreak Stakes, 1600m on dirt
Lindo Amor (Soumillon)
“Having drawn at Number 1 is a huge plus for us. Lindo Amor very much likes being drawn near the rail as opposed to away from it, we’ve seen it on the work track too when he runs with others. A tough field here, but he should run a good race.”

Race 4: Handicap over 1200m on turf
Dream Dubai (Cosgrave)
“This little horse is coming along steadily, he has improved and can run into the money somewhere.”

Race 6: Zabeel Feedmill over 1600m on turf
Suyoof (Crowley) and Muwaary (Antonio Fresu)
“Suyoof is the more talented of the pair, but Muwaary is fitter and coming to hand. I think both will run well, Jim Crowley picked Suyoof, he has been showing some good work after his travels.

Race 7: The Meydan Hotel over 2435m on turf
Saltarin Dubai (Soumillon)
“Saltarin Dubai has been our most disappointing runner this year, he doesn’t reproduce his work. We’ve tried just about everything, now we’re going over ground with him and we’re hoping for better.”

Mikedekockracing.com