Golden Sickle to win again

Jack Milner

All It’s a happy birthday to all racehorses in the southern hemisphere as 1 August sees them all become one year older.

It could be quite a celebration for Golden Sickle who will be looking to make it two wins from two starts since joining the Tony Peter yard.

The daughter of Vercingetorix joined Peter from Cape Town in June and the then two-year-old had her first run for the stable on 8 July. Peter was quite happy to run her in open company in a MR 74 Handicap for fillies and mares over 1000m. She had to carry 60.5kg, giving all of her older opposition weight.

She raced up front from the off and at one point it looked as if the opposition would swallow her up, but when jockey Craig Zackey encouraged her to give more, Golden Sickle responded immediately and kicked away to beat Red Carpet Girl by 1.75 lengths.

Peter has wisely decided to keep her over 1000m when she lines up in Race 8, a MR 76 Handicap for fillies and mares at the Vaal on Tuesday, as at this stage of her career that does look to be her best distance.

She won on debut at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth over 1000m but was then pushed over slightly further to contest a few juvenile feature races. While she placed in all but one of her starts – her only unplaced effort coming over 1400m on the Polytrack at Fairview in Port Elizabeth – she is not short on talent and perhaps restricting her to the minimum trip at this stage of her career is the way to go.

Once again she will be giving weight to all of her 11 opponents but she should improve on her first start and looks too classy for her opposition.

Zackey takes the ride.

Once one looks past her this race looks quite open. Nine-year-old mare Samoa still has a zest for racing and is also at her best over 1000m over which she has a record of five wins and 18 places from 32 runs.

She also travels well under Gavin Lerena and he will be back in the irons once again. The one concern is No 1 draw which is not always the best place to be up the Vaal straight.

An interesting runner is On Cue, who will be having her first run for trainer Paul Matchett. This five-year-old mare was trained by Ashley Fortune but as she and the family will shortly be emigrating to Australia, she closed down her stable at the Vaal.

While On Cue has not won a race in 432 days, she was runner-up in her last two starts, both at this course. If she has adapted well to her new surroundings, she should run well.

Jack Milner’s selections

Race 1: 7 Mount Etna, 6 Pass The Baton, 1 Inner Sense, 9 Crystal Maiden

Race 2: 6 Callaburn, 1 Trip To States, 10 Mizzen Sail, 8 Kudzu

Race 3: 9 Strewn Sky, 6 Breath Of Magic, 1 Pike Place, 10 Cicadidae

Race 4: 1 Just Be Nice, 6 Key Element, 3 Miss Shaivi, 5 Maboneng

Race 5: 4 Roll Over Redrover, 1 Running Rifles, 2 Bey Suyay, 8 Emporium

Race 6: 1 Kind Judy, 2 Ballroom Bliss, 11 Winning Queen, 4 Princess Kesh

Race 7: 8 Global Thunder, 1 Rose For Trippi, 3 Galla Vanting, 4 Mythical Dream

Race 8: 1 Golden Sickle, 5 Samoa, 2 On Cue, 8 Simply Magic

Race 9: 8 Red Carpet Girl, 9 Della's Sword, 5 Mia Regina, 14 Smelting

BEST BET

Race 8 No 1 Golden Sickle     

VALUE BET

Race 5 No 4 Roll Over Redrover

BEST SWINGER

Race 9 8x9

BIPOT

R288

Leg 1: 6

Leg 2: 1, 6, 9, 10

Leg 3: 1, 3, 5, 6

Leg 4: 1, 2, 4

Leg 5: 1, 2

Leg 6: 1, 3, 8

PLACE ACCUMULATOR

R324

Leg 1: 1, 6, 9

Leg 2: 1, 3, 6

Leg 3: 1, 2, 4

Leg 4: 1, 2

Leg 5: 1, 3, 8

Leg 6: 1

Leg 7: 8, 9

PICK 6

R1800

Leg 1: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Leg 2: 1, 2, 4, 6, 8

Leg 3: 1, 2, 4, 11

Leg 4: 1, 3, 4, 6, 8

Leg 5: 1

Leg 6: 5, 8, 9

JACKPOT 1

R100

Leg 1: 1, 2, 4, 6, 8

Leg 2: 1, 2, 4, 11

Leg 3: 1, 3, 4, 6, 8

Leg 4: 1

JACKPOT 2

R60

Leg 1: 1, 2, 4, 11

Leg 2: 1, 3, 4, 6, 8

Leg 3: 1

Leg 4: 5, 8, 9