Firealley to ignite in the Western Cape

Jack Milner

Firealley is one of those horses who rarely runs a bad race. The five-year-old gelding has raced 31 times for five wins and 13 places.

If one peruses the form of the son of Flower Alley one will acknowledge that many of those unplaced efforts were in Graded company.

On Wednesday at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth he lines up in Race 7, the Winter Mile over 1600m, and clearly has the ability to win a race of this nature.

While he is not the best-weighted competitor – that role goes to Linebacker – the Candice Bass-Robinson-trained runner is well in with the other highly rated runners in the line-up.

On his last run Firealley has to be a contender for this event. That was in a Cape A Stakes over 1400m at this course where he was only caught late by favourite Royal Aussie, going down just 0.30 lengths.

Behind him on that occasion were reopposing Speed Machine, Linebacker and My Bestie. He will meet all but My Bestie on identical terms and My Bestie does not have enough of a weight turnround to reverse the placings.

Aldo Domeyer takes the ride on Firealley.

The main threat could come from stable companion Sugar Mountain who has a competitive weight of 54kg. He does take a jump in class but is in top form and should run well.

Linebacker has not triumphed since the Grade 1 Daily News 2000 in 2021 which he won off a merit rating of 124. Despite not having won in 767 days, having had 12 runs since, his rating has only dropped to 117, which based on recent form might still be over-inflated.

If Vaughan Marshall can rekindle some of that old spark, however, the five-year-old might still be good enough to win this race.

Craig Zackey takes the ride.

Jack Milner’s selections

Race 1: 12 Three Coins, 13 Pineapplemintgreen, 3Triptothewoods, 1 Candy Town

Race 2: 10 Below Deck, 5 Montreal, 2 Unconquerable Lady, 8 Lip Sync

Race 3: 8 Spring Palace, 1 Fujisan, 7 Hluhluwe, 2 My Golly Molly

Race 4: 8 Green Knight, 10 Ponte Vecchio, 4 Cabaret, 6 Boogiefied

Race 5: 5 Snow Pilot, 7 Lady Majorca, 10 No Apologies, 4 Etoilefillante

Race 6: 1 Analytic, 3 Sunshine Day, 6 Epikleros, 2 Woman's World

Race 7: 8 Firealley, 4 Sugar Mountain, 3 Linebacker, 2 Gainsford

Race 8: 6 Metar, 5 Cloud Chaser, 3 My Flower Fate, 4 Symphony Of Light

Race 9: 3 Sudden Song, 5 Royal Watch, 2 Night Ruler, 7 Mucho Dinero

BEST BET

Race 5 No 5 Snow Pilot

VALUE BET

Race 9 No 3 Sudden Song

BEST SWINGER

Race 5 5x7

BIPOT

R216

Leg 1: 2, 5, 10

Leg 2: 1, 2, 7, 8

Leg 3: 1, 8, 10

Leg 4: 5

Leg 5: 1, 3, 6

Leg 6: 3, 4, 8

PLACE ACCUMULATOR

R162

Leg 1: 1, 7, 8

Leg 2: 1, 8, 10

Leg 3: 5

Leg 4: 1

Leg 5: 4, 8

Leg 6: 3, 5, 6

Leg 7: 2, 3, 5

PICK 6

R1800

Leg 1: 1, 4, 6, 8, 10

Leg 2: 4

Leg 3: 1, 3, 6

Leg 4: 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10

Leg 5: 3, 4, 5, 6

Leg 6: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7

JACKPOT 1

R72

Leg 1: 4

Leg 2: 1, 3, 6

Leg 3: 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10

Leg 4: 3, 4, 5, 6

JACKPOT 2

R360

Leg 1: 1, 3, 6

Leg 2: 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10

Leg 3: 3, 4, 5, 6

Leg 4: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7