Jack Milner: Ideal Jet takes a drop in class and will be hard to beat in Race 5, a MR 85 Handicap for fillies and mares over 1800m, on the Vaal Classic track on Tuesday.
Paul Peter’s charge was lightly raced as a three-year-old but was rated good enough by her trainer to run in a couple of feature races. She contested the Listed Oaks Trial over 2000m at Turffontein and was touched off into second place by Aryaam.
Her next run was in the Grade 2 SA Oaks over 2450m, also on the Turffontein Standside track, but she did not perform up to expectations.
While Peter admitted she could not have troubled the winner, War Of Athena, he had been hoping for better than her sixth place in which she was beaten 25 lengths.
Ideal Jet was given a break and then returned to racing as a four-year-old on the opening day of the new season, to contest a MR 87 Handicap for fillies and mares over 2000m at Turffontein.
Peter felt she would need the run, and at the end of the day that proved to be the correct assessment. However, she did lead for most of the journey, and it was only over the final 100m that her stride started to shorten and she was caught close home by Franklin, to whom she was conceding 5.5kg, by 0.20 lengths.
That run would have brought her on, and in spite of having to shoulder 62kg, Ideal Jet will take a power of beating.
Warren Kennedy has ridden her in three of her six starts and he is back in the irons.
The fields are once again quite small at the Vaal but nevertheless, many are highly competitive. Race 6 is a perfect example of this, but one could get a bit of value in the race with Muzi Yeni riding Lady Of The Flame for trainer Paul Matchett.
This four-year-old daughter of Act Of War, while placing on numerous occasions, took 13 races to finally crack her maiden. But her post-maiden run was most encouraging as she was beaten just 0.95 lengths into second place by Timeforthat, to whom she was conceding 2kg.
A winner has already come from that form line so Lady Of The Flame looks a filly to follow.
The team of Muzi and Matchett has produced some remarkable statistics of late. In the period covered by ComputaForm, they have combined on 223 runners which has produced 35 winners and 81 places.
For people interested in percentages, that means 15.7% of their runners have won while 52% have placed.
With only nine runners carded to race in this event, a Quartet could be the way to go. The best formula is to float Lady Of The Flame with the field and take a percentage. The other option is to find a second runner so one could double float them, once again with the field.
Remember, if you are looking for a decent payout then go with the field, because the first horse you leave out, is likely to be the one that makes the Quartet pay.