Jack Milner: Trainer Paul Peter has his eyes set on the Highveld trainers’ title this season and he took a big step towards that goal when Summer Pudding won the Grade 1 HSH Princess Charlene Empress Club Stakes last Saturday.
At the time of writing, Justin Snaith leads the national log by R1.42 million from Peter, with Sean Tarry another R936,550 back in third. In terms of stake money on the Highveld alone, Peter is R1,618,050 ahead of Tarry.
He acknowledges that catching Snaith will be very tough, but Peter will be endeavouring to keep Tarry at bay for the local title.
So, with that in mind, he has a strong contingent in action at Turffontein on Tuesday when they race on the Inside track. Champion jockey Warren Kennedy is aboard all five runners.
While most of them appear to have winning chances, two runners stand out and they are Sound Of Summer in Race 5 and Sergei in Race 8.
Sound Of Summer has only raced once but made an notable debut when beating stablemate West Coast Lover by 2.25 lengths over 1400m on the Standside track. He was well supported in the market but gave his backers some anxious moments when he played up at the start and then lost ground coming out of the stalls.
But once the race got going, he ran like a true professional.
He contests a MR 83 Handicap over 1600m on Tuesday but will have to jump from the widest draw of the 10 runners, not ideal over this course and distance. But he does have the most room for improvement in this line-up.
Sergei runs in a Maiden Handicap over 2000m and he has the benefit of jumping from barrier No 1. This son if Soft Falling Rain has placed in his last three races and this looks to be the ideal event for him to get off the mark.
Tarry is also out in full force and he has 12 runners carded. Best of his group could be Route Sixty Six in Race 2 and Have A Go Jo in Race 6
The latter was beaten just 2.30 lengths by Grade 1 WSB SA Derby runner-up Pamushana’s Pride in the Listed Derby Trial over 2000m on the Standside track.