It’s the match of the day. Chevauchee and Bela-Bela, the two best Cape Fillies Guineas candidates not to run in last Saturday’s Choice Carriers Championship, take each other on in the Place Your Bets Handicap at Kenilworth today.

Both have won their only starts, despite dawdling out of the pens, and both earned rave reviews for the talented way they disposed of the opposition.

There is no form line but the handicappers have assessed Chevauchee as about a length the better and have weighted the pair accordingly. The bookmakers have also stuck their necks out with Betting World opening Chevauchee favourite at 8-10 yesterday and offering 15-10 about Bela-Bela. World Sports Betting favours Chevauchee even more, quoting her at 6-10 and her rival at 2-1. Speedball, considered by both firms to be the biggest danger, is as big as 8-1.

The evidence of the form book is far from conclusive. The three who finished immediately behind Bela-Bela were fourth, first and second on their next start. Chevauchee (pronounced Chev-O-Shay according to Ridgemont manager Craig Carey) ran more recently and the only placed horse in her race to have run since is the second, Honest Ally,  who started favourite last Saturday and finished third.

The one person really in a position to judge their relative merits is Bernard Fayd’Herbe who won on both and this time is claimed by Ridgemont for Chevauchee. “They are two very good fillies but they are very different,” he says. “One is very athletic and the other is a big strong sort.”

In other words it is just as difficult for him to choose between them. So what do the trainers think?

“Bela-Bela is a very nice filly and she is doing well,” says Justin Snaith. “I didn’t want to run her from a bad draw in the Choice Carriers. She again has a bad draw here so we will give her a chance in the race.”

But the field has since been reduced to six and Chevauchee’s draw advantage much diminished.  Joey Ramsden says: “The Choice Carriers would have been a bit soon for Chevauchee and she would have been drawn wide. Also she might not have got a run. Going round the turn will suit her and this time we’ve got the draw.”

It’s Chevauchee who gets the writer’s vote but it’s not much more than a coin-tossing decision. It promises to be a fascinating contest and the winner could well prove a worthy opponent for Silver Mountain.

Half Moon Hotel ran way above his rating when fourth to Blarney Bay and Captain America in the Hollard Humdinger Pinnacle at the end of last month and on that performance he is absolutely thrown in with only 53kg in the Itsarush.co.za Handicap (race six).

But at the age of six he hasn’t suddenly made miraculous improvement – “It was a big surprise,” says Vaughan Marshall. “But they went a decent pace and what he likes is a good, hard gallop.”

Anthony Andrews’ mount has to be the selection – particularly as you can get 8-1 about him.  In The Cruise (4-1) and Sheer Trouble (22-10) look the dangers.

Dean Kannemeyer’s Cape Laddie opened 18-10 favourite for the first but Angkor Wat looks better at 2-1 despite not having raced since Durbanville in July, while evens favourite Duke The Duke should recoup last time’s losses in race three.

By Michael Clower 

Picture: Bernard Fayd’Herbe (Nkosi Hlophe)

Red Ray, officially the best three-year-old in the country when he bowed out 18 months ago, may yet return to South Africa after his so far abortive overseas campaign.

Racing manager Derek Brugman said: “At the moment he is still in England, and there are some soundness issues.”

Brugman stressed that it has not been decided whether he will race again and added: “We might bring him back to South Africa to stand at stud but that decision is still some way away.”

Red Ray was trained by Joey Ramsden to win the 2013 Cape Classic before going close in the Cape Guineas, Cape Flying Championship and Golden Horse Sprint. He joined Mike de Kock and went via Mauritius to Dubai and Britain but his only run has been in a Group 2 seven furlong race at Meydan in January when he started favourite but finished seventh.

By Michael Clower

Picture: Red Ray (Liesl King)

Dean Kannemeyer will wait until the day before the race before sending Vodacom Durban July winner Power King to Johannesburg for the Sansui Summer Cup on November 28

He said: “I have done this before from Durban and I will arrange the journey so that he arrives there in the afternoon that Friday.”

Kannemeyer was delighted with the five-year-old’s prep in the 1 200m Pinnacle at Greyville ten days ago and understandably so with the gelding running on strongly over a trip too short for him to finish a length and a half second to Flyfirstclass.

He said: “That was a very nice run and he won’t run again in the meantime – one gallop is all he now needs. Of course he has quite a bit of weight to carry but I am very happy with the horse.”

By Michael Clower

Picture: Power King (Nkosi Hlophe)

Given the heatwave gripping the country it will be a relief for racing at Turffontein tomorrow evening where temperatures will hopefully be a little kinder come sunset. The heat may be brutal but just how Brutal Force fares in the Pinnacle Stakes that heads the card will be interesting. The big purses of the Highveld have lured Western Cape-based trainers out of their stronghold and Joey Ramsden teams up with old ally Andrew Fortune in a Pinnacle Stakes sprint that heads the card.

Trip To Heaven (JC Photo)

Brutal Force’s merit rating may have suffered as a result of the hype that surrounded him early in his career and although has been pitted against the best around his successes may not quite have warranted his current rating.

However, given that this is a conditions event Brutal Force looks to be up against it and it’s difficult to look past top weight Trip To Heaven. Hardly a meeting passes on the Highveld or in KZN when Sean Tarry’s name does not appear in the results column and he looks to have picked another plum for the son of Trippi.

Lightly raced, Trip To Heaven has won four of his eight starts and the form of his last two have held up very well. He had the wood on recent Charity Mile winner Bouclette Top last time out and prior to that beat Bloodstock SA Ready To Run winner Lineker. He does have a fair weight to shoulder but is not giving much away to his rivals and given his rating he should prove too good for this line-up.

An interesting runner is the return of Forest Indigo. One of the stars of his sophomore year it all went wrong for Alec Laird’s runner and he goes to the gate for the first time since March this year.

There is no doubt that he will prefer further but with the Highveld season upon us, just how he fares will no doubt determine his future.

Mike de Kock appears to have unearthed another smart performer in Perfume Lady who does duty in the sixth, a handicap sprint over 1000m. The daughter of Captain Al landed the odds on debut and was then pitted against feature company on the Vaal sand. She was far from friendless in the market and duly obliged at just her second time at the track.

Her sand rating is significantly below her turf rating so she looks well in at these weights and along with Trip To Heaven should make a strong double.

By Andrew Harrison

Miss Varlicious is relatively lightly raced, having had only seven starts, but she has hardly missed a beat, earning a stakes cheque on every occasion and that trend could continue in the fifth at Greyville tomorrow. Paul Gadsby’s runner comes off a comfortable victory at Scottsville, the third of her career, but she faces a useful field and victory could be hard-fought.

Apart from her debut on the Greyville poly where she finished second to the speedy but temperamental Regardstobroadway, Miss Varlicious has raced exclusively at Scottsville with all except her last race being over 1000m. The step up in trip last time out did not faze her and she romped home ahead of Chestnuts N Pearls. It was a strong conditions race field but the win was tempered by the fact that she only had 48kg to shoulder.

Miss Varlicious (Nkosi Hlophe)

Tomorrow she has been lumped with 64kg but Eric Ngwane is back aboard and she takes 4kg relief which puts her in very favourably again. Miss Varlicious has already shown that she acts on the poly and given her recent form and the fact that most of the serious opposition would probably prefer it a tough further she should be difficult to beat.

But she does face another lightly raced filly in the Sean Tarry-trained In Other Words, a winner of three of her only for starts but all over 1400m. Like Miss Varlicious she was a late starter only making her debut in April this year as a four-year-old and all her wins have come on the poly. She has not been out since August and in Miss Varlicious faces more serious opposition than she has beaten to date.

However, the Tarry stable is on the boil and even though In Other Words may be a little race rusty she looks a big threat to Miss Varlicious.

Red Label is another in good form but like In Other Words she does look more at home over a touch further.

Miss Varlicious looks a possible banker in the exotics but an even better bet could come in the final leg with Ten Gun Salute. The Duncan Howells-trained colt has improved with every outing and will never meet a weaker field than he faces tomorrow.

The closure of the Vaal sand will not have pleased St John Gray whose runners did particularly well on that surface and it was fitting that his runners finished first, third and fourth in the final race on that surface.

This has forced him to cast around and we can expect more of his runners on the Greyville poly. The first of these lines up in the second where he saddles Ciao-Ciao and he has booked Anton Marcus for the ride. The gelding has a sand rating of 73 but here races off his turf rating of 60 which puts him well in at the weights.

However, he faces a Tarry runner that also comes off the sand with a 9-point lower turf rating. With a pole position draw and Delpech up, he could be the right one in this field.

Gray sends out two runners in the opening leg of the Pick 6 and both Don Vito and Mind Games need to be included in the Pick 6. Guilty As Charged is the form runner having taken to the poly surface however, he may just find this trip a touch sharp which opens the way for the opposition.

By Andrew Harrison