Jack Milner
Bettors are in for a remarkable day’s racing at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Sunday with a wall-to-wall card of 10 feature races.
This is a Hong Kong World Pool meeting and will allow punters to take TAB Win, Place, Exacta, Quinella and Swinger bets into massive commingled pools from Races 2 to 10.
There are also three carryovers on the day starting off with the Pick 6, which will have R2 million added to the pool and is likely to reach R12 million.
The second is a R250,000 carryover to Jackpot One, which kicks off in Race 5, and that is likely to get to R1-million.
Finally, R1 million will boost the Quartet pool in Race 7, the Grade 3 World Pool Gold Cup over 3200m, and that is likely to climb to R5 million.
Depending how you look at the race, finding that Quartet can be a tricky task. There is little doubt that based on current form, 14-10 favourite Future Pearl looks hard to beat. Sean Tarry’s charge has been a revelation since tried over longer distances and as a three-year-old, he can only get better.
He destroyed the field in the Gold Bowl over 3200m at Turffontein and then did much the same in the Gold Vase over 3000m at this course on Durban July day. That race is often seen as the best pointer to the Gold Cup and the manner of that victory does suggest he deserves to be a short-priced favourite.
In addition, Tarry has had an outstanding Durban season and with in-form Richard Fourie up and a decent draw it will take a brave punter to oppose him.
But this is the Gold Cup, they have more than a circuit of the track to run, and things can go wrong.
On paper, however, he is 2.5kg out with last year’s winner Shangani, but one needs to take into account the maximum penalty the handicappers were allowed to give him for the Gold Vase win was 3kg and he in all likelihood ran to a higher mark.
The other concern is the going as both of his major victories came in wet going and a firmer track is forecast for Sunday.
The problem is if you look past Future Pearl, anything could win. If you like the favourite then the Quartet to take is to banker Future Pearl for the win and load the legs for second, third and fourth.
The question is, who are the dangers? Well, we do have the winners of the last two Gold Cups in the field, Shangani last year and Tarry’s second runner, Nebraas, from 2021. They have not been in the best of form lately but they could be peaking for this race.
Mike de Kock saddles Aragosta who has placed in his last three races over 2200m and 2400m but is not certain to see out 3200m.
An interesting outsider has to be Vaughan Marshall-trained Senso Unico who had a decent enough preparation run when fourth in the Gold Bowl. Yes, he was beaten almost six lengths by Future Pearl but he lost ground at the start and comes into this race 3kg better off.
While he has his work cut out to reverse the placings, he could help make the Quartet pay well.
Fight Song ran second in the Gold Vase but is 1.5kg worse off with Future Pearl and 4.5kg worse off with Senso Unico.
Jack Milner’s selections
Race 1: 4 Ready To Charge, 5 Tail Of The Comet, 8 Heirloom, 1 Outlaw King
Race 2: 3 Leaving Las Vegas, 2 Oriental Bouquet, 12 American Graffiti, 4 Idita
Race 3: 5 Captain Fontane, 4 Battle Force, 14 Quasiforsure, 1 Cosmic Highway
Race 4: 7 Bless My Stars, 1 Saartjie, 5 Dawnofanewday, 9 Hold My Hand
Race 5: 13 Lucky Lad, 14 Sandringham Summit, 5 Main Defender, 1 Francine
Race 6: 4 Gimme A Prince, 6 Thunderstruck, 7 Surjay, 5 Val D'Orcia
Race 7: 3 Future Pearl, 6 Shangani, 2 Senso Unico, 13 Aragosta
Race 8: 11 See It Again, 3 Trip Of Fortune, 2 Zapatillas, 1 Dave The King
Race 9: 12 Secret Identity, 4 Distant Winter, 9 Egyptian Mau, 5 Rascova
Race 10: 2 Warship, 1 Mr Master Starter, 7 African Skyline, 9 Smith And Wesson
BEST BET
Race 6 No 4 Gimme A Prince
VALUE BET
Race 9 No 12 Secret Identity
BEST SWINGER
Race 1 4x5
BIPOT
R240
Leg 1: 2, 3, 4, 12
Leg 2: 1, 4, 5, 9, 14
Leg 3: 1, 5,7
Leg 4: 1, 5, 13, 14
Leg 5: 4
Leg 6: 3
PLACE ACCUMULATOR
R120
Leg 1: 1, 4, 5, 14
Leg 2: 1, 7
Leg 3: 5, 13, 14
Leg 4: 4
Leg 5: 3
Leg 6: 11
Leg 7: 4, 5, 9, 11, 12
PICK 6
R320
Leg 1: 1, 5, 7, 9
Leg 2: 1, 5, 3, 14
Leg 3: 4
Leg 4: 2, 3, 6, 13
Leg 5: 11
Leg 6: 4, 5, 9, 11, 12
JACKPOT 1
R16
Leg 1: 1, 5, 3, 14
Leg 2: 4
Leg 3: 2, 3, 6, 13
Leg 4: 11
JACKPOT 2
R220
Leg 1: 2, 3, 6, 13
Leg 2: 11
Leg 3: 4, 5, 9, 11, 12
Leg 4: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13