Derby and Dahlia now on the poly

Jack Milner

It appears the threat of rain still looms large over the running of the Listed World Sports Betting East Cape Derby and Dahlia Plate for two-year-olds at Fairview.

Last week the meeting was called off after four races had been run and the two feature races were added to Friday’s card to make it a 10-race bumper meeting.

Although the meeting was on the Polytrack, the two feature races would remain on the turf.

However, that plan faded away yesterday with the news that more than 150mm of rain had fallen at the track during the week and further precipitation was forecast.

As a result, the penetrometer reading showed vast variances (32-58) in many areas on the turf track so an early decision was taken to run the two races also on the Polytrack.

The Derby will now be run over 2200m instead of 2400m while the Dahlia Plate remains unchanged at 1200m.

It does make life difficult to assess which horses will perform best on a wet Polytrack but we will stick with Alan Greeff-trained Heathcliff to get the better of Perfection from the Gavin Smith yard with Justin Snaith’s Cosmic Event.

At least we are certain the Greeff and Smith runners can perform on the surface while Snaith’s charge is untried.

However, this is no easy call and it would be advisable to put as many runners as possible into the Exotics.

The same applies to the Dahlia Plate as Smith-trained Global Force is the only runner to have competed on the Polytrack and it was a winning run.

One would imagine that the local runners have all at least worked on the surface and the trainers have some idea of what to expect, so keep an eye on the betting.

Also note S’manga Khumalo will not be riding at the meeting.

Jack Milner’s selections

Race 1: 1 Aadehya, 4 Xplicit Content, 5 Move On Over, 6 Swiftwinged

Race 2: 8 Vandalise, 2 Elusive Mata, 4 Jambo Sana, 6 Red Love

Race 3: 5 Mari Marie, 9 Principessa Mia, 2 Short Sharp Shock, 3 Ygritte

Race 4: 1 Popping Crease, 11 Gold For Africa, 9 Joe Harman, 4 Sjambok

Race 5: 1 Bush Tracker, 4 Peace In Our World, 7 Blonde Act, 2 Tarantino

Race 6: 1 Vision Of Wonder, 5 Golden Sickle, 4 Luna Halo, 3 The Winter Lake

Race 7: 2 Heathcliff, 1 Perfection, 3 Cosmic Event, 7 Quasimodo

Race 8: 3 Chroniclesofnania, 4 Bonnaroo, 2 Rainbow Thief, 1 Definitely Maybe

Race 9: 3 Pashtunwali, 1 El Romiachi, 8 Open Secret, 5 Stay The Course

Race 10: 3 Ride The Lightning, 7 Quick Count, 1 I Like It Hot, 4 Hildelita

BEST BET

Race 2 No 8 Vandalise

VALUE BET

Race 8 No 3 Chroniclesofnania

BEST SWINGER

Race 1 1x4

BIPOT

R108

Leg 1: 8

Leg 2: 2, 5, 9

Leg 3: 1

Leg 4: 1, 4, 7

Leg 5: 1, 4, 5

Leg 6: 1, 2, 3, 7

PLACE ACCUMULATOR

R216

Leg 1: 5, 9

Leg 2: 1

Leg 3: 1, 4

Leg 4: 1, 5

Leg 5: 1, 2, 3

Leg 6: 2, 3, 4

Leg 7: 1, 2, 3, 7

PICK 6

R2250

Leg 1: 1, 11

Leg 2: 1, 4, 7

Leg 3: 1, 4, 5

Leg 4: 1, 2, 3, 7, 9

Leg 5: 1, 2, 3, 4, 10

Leg 6: 1, 3, 5, 8, 9

JACKPOT 1

R225

Leg 1: 1, 4, 7

Leg 2: 1, 4, 5

Leg 3: 1, 2, 3, 7, 9

Leg 4: 1, 2, 3, 4, 10

JACKPOT 2

R500

Leg 1: 1, 4, 5

Leg 2: 1, 2, 3, 7, 9

Leg 3: 1, 2, 3, 4, 10

Leg 4: 1, 3, 5, 8, 9