Jack Milner: Winter Smoke makes her first appearance on the Inside track at Turffontein on Saturday and that could prove ideal for the Ashley Fortune-trained runner.
She lines up in Race 7, a Progress Plate for fillies and mares over 1200m, and comes into this event as marginally the best weighted runner.
What makes the Inside track more interesting is that events over 1200m and further are run around the turn. But while Winter Smoke has not raced at the course, she has competed around a bend – with success.
That race came at Greyville in the Non-Black Type KwaZulu-Natal Breeders Juvenile Plate over 1200m on the Polytrack. The daughter of What A Winter loved both the surface and the turn, and the result was never in doubt. She had the race in the bag a long way from home as she beat Magical Flight by 2.50 lengths.
In nine starts Winter Smoke has had three wins and six places, and from No 4 draw and regular jockey Calvin Habib in the irons, she is the runner to beat in this Progress Plate.
Thumbs Up has proven form at this track, having raced four times for two wins and a second place. She is not all that well weighted with Winter Smoke as she meets Fortune’s charge at level weights while had this been a handicap, Thumbs Up would have been in receipt of 4.5kg.
However, she is in top form, coming off a 5.30-length defeat of Run April Run over this track and trip. There could be a lot more to come from this Johan Janse van Vuuren-trained daughter of Gimmethegreenlight.
Randall Simons takes the ride.
In The Dance is hard to assess. She is bred in the purple and is a half-sister to Capetown Noir, who won the Grade 1 Cape Guineas and Cape Derby. However, this five-year-old mare seems to have her issues and cannot be backed with confidence.
Nevertheless, Sean Tarrry’s charge is well in at the weights and if she does put her best foot forward, could easily take this race.
While her best runs have come over a little further, she has raced three times over 1200m for a win and two places.