Jack Milner: When trainer Justin Snaith teams up with jockey Anton Marcus it is always worth taking notice.
That is the case at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Wednesday when they join forces on two horses, Keep The Lights On in Race 5 and Native Tongue in Race 7.
Midweek meetings at Greyville are notoriously competitive and those looking for a banker could go with Keep The Lights On who runs in a Conditional Graduation race for fillies and mares over 1100m on the turf track.
This Visionaire filly is the best weighted runner and is 2kg better handicapped with Vivid Jet and 8.5kg and better with the balance of the field. She has been taking on much stronger than this lot as her last five runs have all been in Graded races.
She placed third in three of them and is expected to dominate this bunch. To add to her advantage, four of her six rivals are coming back from layoffs while the other two are recent maiden winners.
Vivid Jet has also been running in features and although it was in August last year, Keep The Lights On did finish 4.40 lengths ahead of Mark Dixon’s charge in The Debutante over 1200m at this course.
Marcus has ridden her twice for a win and a second place so he does know the filly, and they will jump from No 4 draw.
Native Tongue contests a Pinnacle Stakes over 1600m, and while he is in good form currently and did win his penultimate race over this course and distance, he is not one of the best weighted runners.
Tristful, Capoeira and Astrix are better handicapped and have raced against stronger. Interestingly, Richard Fourie, stable jockey to Snaith has opted to ride Capoeira, who finished two lengths behind Native Tongue last time and is 4.5kg better off, which should be enough to reverse the result.