DROUGHT TO CONTINUE?
IT is going to be a tough task for the Eastern Cape stables to break the winning drought in the R350 000 Listed Jonsson Workwear Algoa Cup over 2000m on Sunday at the Fairview Turf track.
The Western Cape visitors have dominated the premier race in the Eastern Cape for many years now and look strong again.
They will be worried though about the East Cape Champion older horse Grazinginthgegrass who has won his last six starts for the Alan Greeff stable.
He ran a bit disappointing in last year’s race but Greeff and jockey Richard Fourie have done the homework to make sure the local hero will be a bigger threat this time.
Grazinginthegrass always gives his best, loves the track and leads the local onslaught.
Hoedspruit (Kelly Mitchley), who won this race two years ago when in the care of Justin Snaith in the Western Cape, and Cherry Ano (Gavin Smith) are two other local horses who can make their presence felt.
But the Western Cape visitors look strong and it will be a huge task for an East Cape horse to win for the first time since Surfin’ USA’s fantastic performance in 2009.
The pick of the six visitors in the field of 16 are Triple Time (Snaith), The Futurist (Brett Crawford) and last year’s winner Han Solo (Glen Kotzen).
Triple Time and Han Solo are both drawn wide but will enjoy the long run-in. They should be involved in an exciting run for the line down the Fairview straight.
The Futurist is expected to go to the front and make all of them work for the victory. He carries a nice galloping weight of 54.5kgs and on Friday Crawford showed he is in town to collect trophies when Zoomie won the Listed Racehorse Owners Association Stakes.
The meeting of nine races starts at 12:10 and Graduation Time (Sharon Kotzen) should get punters off to a good start.
The filly Three Rocks (Greeff) will be going for a fifth win in a row in the second race, which is the first leg of the Bipot.
Ilha Da Mauricia (Juan Nel) and My Ami Beach (Emmanuel Kaknis) are both drawn wide but are the main runners in the third race which gets the Place Accumulator under way.
There is a carryover boost to the Pick Six which starts with the fourth race and the pool is expected to reach R3 million.
Punters can look to the Glen Kotzen yard for possible bankers, as Blackberry Malt (race 5) and Flower Of Saigon (race 6) are huge runners.
Flower Of Saigon is the favourite to win the Betway Wedgewood Handicap (NBT) for fillies and mares over 2400m.
A very strong Pinnacle Stakes over 1200m, race 8, is another highlight on the card with Cruise Control, Cliff Top and Khaya’s Hope in action.
The battle for the Algoa Cup is the seventh race, off at 15:30.
Found our tips at Henk Se Wenk on race day.