Turffontein Standside stages a nine race night meeting tomorrow and the highlight is a Pinnacle Stakes race over 1000m in which a number of Grade 1 Compuataform Sprint candidates will be having preparation runs.
Trip To Heaven (JC Photo)
Trip To Heaven has lost his outstanding form lately but has still been thereabouts against the best and as the champion Sean Tarry yard are in good form at the moment he can use his weight and draw advantage to good effect. The standside draws are usually favourable down the straight here and he has drawn eight of nine. Green Pepper has speed and class and is unbeaten in two starts over this course and distance so she should also be involved in the finish. Naafer has a tough low draw but nearly pulled off a win in the Merchants on Summer Cup day from the number one draw over 1160m so he can make his presence felt. He has not raced since then but was joint-favourite for the Grade 1 Cape Flying Championships on Met day when having to be scratched after a calamitous false start so will be fit enough.
Champagne Haze can be expected to be finishing like a train over this trip and is one from one over course and distance. Cathedral County is officially not favoured by the weights but is an up and coming sort who could still develop into a top class sort. He does have a tricky low draw but Piere Strydom is an eye-catching booking. Sir David Baird proved he can mix it with the best sprinters last time in the Senor Santa but he might not be favoured by a further step down in trip and has the tough number one draw. Rocky Valley ran a fair race in the Senor Santa and is the dark horse here as he will probably relish the step down in trip. Attenborough is a quirky sort but very good on his day and having run fifth in the Cape Flying he is 1,5kg better off with Trip To Heaven for a one length beating. Graduation Day is an unsound sort who had a fine strike rate up until his 10th start but his recent form suggests his problems have caught up with him. They are selected in the order mentioned but it is wide open.
Race seven is an interesting event over 20000m and the quirky Secret Captain could get it right having done well to date on the Highveld for Mike de Kock. However, the chief threat Dawn Assault is proven over the trip so has to be included.
Earlier De Kock sends out Albacore, who is chosen as best bet on the card in race three. He is a well-bred son of Fastnet Rock and looks the part. He is drawn wide in his first start around the turn but can use his big action to mow them down.
Wonderwall is ideally course and distance suited in the eighth over 1400m, but the classy Zouaves will relish the course and distance too and so will Dan The Lad.
The meeting opens with an interesting Maiden Juvenile Plate which looks to be a three-corned contest between Royal Italian and the less experienced but eye-catching pair Absente and Potjie.
By David Thiselton
