Three feature races head the nine race meeting at Turffontein Inside track tomorrow and possibly the most intriguing runner of the day will be Matador Man in the Gr 3 Tony Ruffel Stakes over 1450m.

The Toreador gelding relaxed beautifully in the running and then showed a fine turn of foot when winning the Listed Secretariat Stakes over 1400m in early December. He now faces some of the best three-year-olds in Gauteng but looks up to it. His high draw is not a real concern as he always starts slowly and can slot in behind the field.

Maleficent (Nkosi Hlophe)

The best weighted horse is the progressive Australian-bred More Than Ready filly Ektifaa and she will attempt to remain unbeaten for the season. Last time out in the Gr 2 Choice Carriers over 1400m at Kenilworth she beat the classy Sail at level weights by 0,75 lengths despite jumping from a high draw. This trip looks to be down her alley and she has a plum draw of three with regular pilot Callan Murray aboard. However, it might be trough giving 1,5kg to the unexposed Matador Man.

Chili Con Carne has come into his own since blinkers have been fitted and Piere Strydom has remained aboard after their good win together over 1400m last time. From a draw of two this classy and progressive gelding by Just As Well should be in the shake up.

Al Fahad finished a decent fifth in the Gr 1 Grand Parade Cape Guineas, when finding no extra after being right up there with 400m to go. He moved up well again last time over 1800m, before fading. On the evidence of those runs he will relish the step back down to 1450m and will be a dangerous runner.

Doosra won the Gr 2 Graham Beck Stakes over 1400m and looked to be a long-striding sort who was heading places. However, he has to bounce back from a flat run last time when beaten five lengths by Chili Con Carne, although he is now 2kg better off. The dark horse is Maximizer, a big and impressive specimen who has won his last two starts, both over 1400m, in eyecatching style. The Querari colt is drawn in pole and can prove himself here. He has made breathing noises but no tongue tie is fitted, suggesting his breathing is not being affected.

In the Gr 3 Three Troikas over 1450m the classy Maleficent is hard to beat at the weights. However, a horse who might give some cheek over an ideal trip is Anna Pavlova, who has an impressively powerful set of hindquarters which generate superb acceleration. She is on the way up. Babbling Brooke looks to have been brought on magnificently by Ormond Ferraris for her classic campaign, but will likely find this too sharp. Al Hawraa is coming into her own and could be a threat having won well over thus sort of trip last time. Comme-Ci-Comme-Ca looks to be improving and could make a bid for a quartet position at likely long odds.

The Listed Wolf Power 1600 gives the lightly raced Australian-bred Redoute’s Choice colt Rafeef a chance to prove his considerable class. He has another tough draw, but should have learnt from his first start around the turn and can mow them down in the straight. Irish Pride is 1,5kg better off for a one length beating by Rafeef over 1400m and is well drawn again. He should be more forward and will likely be a big threat. Romany Prince will also be a threat, having quickened well to beat the useful Deo Juvente on correct handicap terms over 1800m last time. Bulleting Home is a strapping sort and the best has likely not been seen of him yet, so he could surprise. Champagne Haze can’t be ignored as a runner up in the Gauteng Guineas to Abashiri last year, but he carries topweight and is likely better over 1400m.

By David Thiselton

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