News

Gold Cup looks a pearl of a race

Written by Jack Milner | Jul 29, 2023 4:45:18 PM

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