The Vaal stages an eight race meeting on the Inside track today and there look to be a few opportunities for punters. Low draws have been favourable down the straight here by trends.

The highest rated race on the card is the second, an intriguing MR 82 Handicap for three-year-olds over 1400m. The topweight Captain Von Trapp is the selection despite a tricky draw of six in a seven horse field. On debut over 1200m on the Vaal Classic track, he used his big stride to overcome a wide draw and then fended off the challenge of the more experienced Ebony Knight to win by a short-head. The third-placed Harry’s Silver was 4,3 lengths further back.

Ebony Knight franked the form by cruising to an effortless 5,5, length win over 1200m next time out. Harry’s Silver also won his next race and so did another horse who had finished further back. Captain Von Trapp is by Captain Al and is a half-brother to Gr 1 SA Derby dead-heater Royal Bencher, so should relish the step up in trip. He is still quite gangly, so should continually improve.

Alec Laird

Raydaveric could be the chief danger. He has not beaten much to date, but is an eyecatching sort and was not asked any serious questions when winning from start to finish over this trip last time out. He has plenty of scope and coming from the Alec Laird yard should also come on from his first two runs. He was set to carry joint topweight of 60kg but has 1,5kg claimer Calvin Ngcobo aboard. He has a plum draw of two.

At the other end of the weights is Penultimate, who won easily on debut over 1200m and two runs later finished just four lengths behind the promising Buckland over 1200m when 6kg under sufferance on official merit ratings. His last run when finishing well back in the R2,5 million Emperor’s Palace Ready To Run can probably be ignored as he missed the break and was later caught wide. He receives 2kg from Captain Von Trapp and should enjoy this trip on pedigree being by Captain Al out of a Fort Wood mare.

Biblical Susan is the only filly in the race and is only receiving 0,5kg from the topweight. She ran on strongly from a tough draw on debut over 1000m at Scottsville and then followed up with an eyecatching win over 1200m at the Vaal, where she showed a fine turn of foot and found extra to repel Secret Star. The latter franked the form by obliterating a fillies and mares Maiden field over 1160m yesterday by 6,5 lengths.

Wanted Man is a nice looking horse and if he settles better than he did last time over this sort of trip he could be a contender. Approval Mode has finished close to the best of is age over 1000m, but there is a question mark over this trip. Copper Pot ran a fair race in the Ready To Run Cup and can’t be ignored.

The best bet on the card comes in the third race, a Maiden over 1400m. Tilbury Fort over raced over 1600m last time, but still found a late surge to finish second in a fair field. He reportedly finished distressed, but looks likely to relish the step down in trip and Piere Strydom remains aboard from a good draw. He doesn’t face a great field and it would be no surprise if the chief challenger turned out to be the Mike de Kock-trained first-timer Alaadel. He is by Sebring, who won Australia’s biggest sire producing race, the Golden Slipper for two-year-olds over 1200m as well as one other Gr 1 for two-year-olds over 1400m. Alaadel is out of a half-sister to a GR 3 winner in the USA.

Piere Strydom

There could be another good bet in the seventh race, a MR 78 Handicap for fillies and mares over 1700m. Tambalang, in her last race over 1800m on the Turffontein Inside track, was building up into her big stride when her run was blocked and this cost her crucial momentum. She got going again and was closing fast at the finish to be beaten just 0,5 lengths. The progressive daughter of Go Deputy remains on a 78 merit rating and will relish this more galloping track. The only concern is a wide draw of eight in the eight horse field, although she is not the sort who over races.

Cosmo Russe should get punters off to a good start in the first, a maiden for fillies and mares over 1800m. She has proved in her last two starts she loves this sort of trip and from a fair draw of six looks hard to beat in an uninspiring field.

In what should be a fine day for champion trainer Sean Tarry, he has chances in the fourth and sixth races, over 1400m and 2400m, with End Game and Consequentially respectively.

His Silvano filly End Game had to contend with draw 16 of 16 on Charity Mile day in a maiden over 1600m and had to be used up to some extent to slot into midfield, but she then stayed on well for third. This long-striding sort will appreciate the galloping track and looks to have plenty of scope. However, her high draw will be tricky, especially as the obvious danger, Rouge Allure, is distance suited and well drawn.

Consequentially, also by Silvano, has been a revelation with blinkers, finishing strongly to win her last two. She looks likely to enjoy the 2400m trip in the sixth, a MR 71 Handicap. She was only raised three points for her last win to a 64 merit rating, which she looks capable of rising above, but on the downside she is the only female in this field and it is never easy against the boys.

By David Thiselton

Winning Ways [Nov 14] presented by James Goodman and Paul Lafferty

The Alec Laird-trained six-year-old Bezrin gelding Bezanova relished the soft ground at Turffontein Standside yesterday and produced a strong finish on the outside to win the Gr 2 Victory Moon Stakes over 1800m under Randall Simons.

The big chestnut won the Peermont Emperor’s Palace Charity Mile as a four-year-old. He also won the KZN Breeders Mile later that season, following a cracking third in the Gr 1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge. However, going into yesterday’s race he had appeared to have lost interest and had not made the frame for his last seven starts.

However, he was well weighted on his best form yesterday, carrying just 54kg, and was backed into 9/1.

Bezanova (Nkosi Hlophe)

The meeting was postponed from Saturday and there were five scratchings, leaving 12 runners facing the starter.

Bezanova was slotted into midfield from a draw of six as stablemates Arctica and Amsterdam set a steady pace up front. The 3/1 favourite Liege was next and was followed by the fancied Master ‘N Commander.

Liege got the better of the front runners in the straight and the only three-year-old in the field Bold Rex also ran on well. However, they had no answer to Bezanova’s powerful finish, in which his long stride was seen back at its best. Liege was beaten 0,5 lengths into second and Bold Rex was third. Arctica was next best ahead of Coltrane, while Master ‘N Commander ran a disappointing second last.

Earlier, the Johan Janse van Vuuren-trained three-year-old Gimmethegreenlight filly Green Pepper proved herself a sprinter with a big future when waltzing away with the Listed Gardenia Stakes over 1000m and she provided the first leg of e feature double for Randall Simons. She was officially 6,5kg under sufferance being a progressive sort who had only reached a merit rating of 86 in three runs. To beat older fillies and mares at this stage of the season by a comfortable 2,25 lengths was some performance. Another three-year-old, Queen Laurie, finished second and Crystal Glamour was third. The topweight Joan Ranger was a touch slow away, so did well to finish fourth, and the second favourite, three-year-old Exquisite Touch, was fifth. Green Pepper, a powerful bay, started favourite at 15/10.

Earlier in a hotly contested Pinnacle Stakes race over 1160m, the Equus Champion Sprinter Talktothestars could only manage fifth place as the Tarry-trained Trip To Heaven romped home to a comfortable victory under S’Manga Khumalo. Talktothestars (merit rated 121), Legal Eagle (120), Abashiri (117), Trip To Heaven (114), Dollar Dazzler (107) and Doing It For Dan (105) all carried 61,5kg. Talktothestars set the pace but Trip To Heaven, who was making his seasonal reappearance, enjoyed the conditions and cruised past to win by two lengths. Splendid Garden, merit rated only 99, was officially 8kg under sufferance with Talktothestars, but is known to be a quirky sort and he had one of his going days, running on for second. The reigning Equus Horse Of The Year Legal Eagle made a cracking seasonal reappearance over a trip well short of his best to run a 2,4 length third. Pivotal Pursuit was fourth and Talktothestars faded late to finish 3,1 lengths back in ground which may not have suited him.

By David Thiselton

Sail South will take on Marinaresco in the Green Point Stakes early next month after powering home like a tornado in the NRC Charity Plate at Kenilworth on Saturday.

Richard Fourie, who is quickly building up a rewarding association with Brett Crawford’s big stable, swept his mount to the front over a furlong out and the 9-2 chance drew right away to slam Baritone by three and a half lengths.

Sail South (Liesl King)

“It’s going to be a hard season for Sail South off 110 but he now has to take his chance against the top horses,” said

Crawford. “He runs in the Green Point next and then maybe we will consider the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate.”

Justin Snaith, although pleased with Baritone, blamed himself for 14-10 favourite Black Arthur managing only fifth (“He looked rusty. Good horse – bad trainer. It was shocking”). But maybe the self-flagellation was unwarranted. After all, this was the horse’s first run since the July and he is still a colt.

However it was the end of the road for third-placed Blarney Bay even though he seemed to be enjoying his customary gallop-them-into-the-ground tactics as much as ever. “He is eight and, with the summer course coming up, it’s time to call it a day but at least he went out the way I wanted,” said Mike Robinson who put himself on the map by improving the horse out of all recognition soon after taking him over.

Crawford also has a string of big race targets for the Corne Orffer-partnered Beach Goddess who really exerted her authority in the closing stages of the Laisserfaire to beat 1.5kg-conceding stable companion Chevauchee by three-parts of a length. “Laisserfaire was a brilliant filly who I trained,” he recalled. “Beach Goddess will stick to fillies sprints like the Southern Cross (Dec 10) and Sceptre (Jan 6) for now while, as I have said before, Chevauchee, now goes back round the turn.”

Beach Goddess (Liesl King)

Loading for this race proved a starter’s nightmare – it took almost six minutes with more and more of the 13 runners playing up – and the longer it went on the more upset the horses (and their trainers) became but the legendary Ralph Rixon and his wife Val have lived with this sort of thing for over 60 years and they were understandably thrilled with Our Destiny’s third place.

So too was Dean Kannemeyer with the Diadem-targeted Real Princess’s second to Search Party (yes, Crawford again!) in the last while the Milnerton trainer explained that he had reason to believe that Cape Speed’s performance when runner-up to Kilrain under top weight in the Swartz Family Handicap heralds a return to the winner’s box. “He was so fat that this will have taken 50lb off his gut,” said Kannemeyer who has his eye on the new version of the J & B Stayers.

Candice Bass-Robinson is aiming Kilrain at the Peninsula Handicap on January 7. This horse was sold for R1.4 million as a yearling but, when breeder Robin Hamilton later bought him back for R200 000, Robert Bloomberg shrewdly stepped in to take a quarter share.

Owner-breeder Paul Zeeman, who has just had an operation in Cape Town’s Panorama Hospital for heart and shoulder problems, had the sort of tonic that no doctor can match when Nutbush Citilimits got up on the line for Harold Crawford and Ossie Noach at 22-1 in the Elite Fibre Maiden.

By Michael Clower

Rabada, injured in the Charity Mile nine days ago, is to undergo further tests in an effort to discover the full extent of the problem.

Rabada (Nkosi Hlophe)

Brett Crawford said: “His near-fore was quite swollen after the race. We are not quite sure what it is and we are going to have to rescan the leg but he will be rested for three months.”

Last season’s Daily News winner was the original favourite for the Sansui Summer Cup but Vodacom Durban July winner The Conglomerate is still as short as 14-1 despite finishing only ninth in the Charity Mile.

Joey Ramsden, reporting him on the course for the big Turffontein race on Saturday week, said: “He was fine afterwards. It was just that he didn’t catch a draw and he was slowly away.”

Stable companion Table Bay (Anton Marcus) will start at short odds for the Selangor Cup at Kenilworth on Saturday, not least because he has 7kg in hand on official ratings. Ramsden, bidding to win the Grade 2 for the fifth time in six years, said that going straight to the Cape Guineas was never really an option – “there is such a big gap between the Cape Classic and the Guineas that you have to do something in the meantime.”

Marcus also partners the highest merit-rated in the Lanzerac Ready To Run whose winning purse is five times as much as the Selangor at R1.25 million. The Vaughan Marshall-trained Grade 1 winner Always In Charge has a theoretical 2kg in hand over the next best, Sergeant Hardy. Anthony Delpech rides this one for Justin Snaith.

By Michael Clower