Peter has the right Defender

Jack Milner

We look to have some outstanding three-year-olds this season and we are sure to enjoy some highly competitive races between them, and we will get a glimpse into that future with the running of the Grade 3 Betway Graham Beck Stakes and HSH Princess Charlene Starling Stakes for fillies, both over 1400m at Turffontein on Saturday.

Sandringham Summit won two sensational races at Hollywoodbets Greyville last season and in the second, the Grade 1 Premiers Champion Stakes over 1600m, he comfortably beat Main Defender by 2.40 lengths.

They will meet again in the Graham Beck Stakes but this time the result could be reversed. Tony Peter-trained Main Defender showed his improvement when making a field of top division runners look second rate in the Betway Joburg Spring Challenge over 1450m on the Turffontein Inside track.

“He’s doing really well,” said Peter. “He’s not a heavy horse so I haven’t killed him after that run. I didn’t want a flat second run so I haven’t put pressure on him.

“I’ve just played with him between then and now but he’s athletic and doesn’t take all that much work.”

Sandringham Summit, however, will be using this as his prep run for the Jonsson Workwear Dingaans. “He’s doing well,” said trainer David Nieuwenhuizen yesterday, “but this is not the ideal prep run for him. We looked at other races but he drew badly and that has forced us into running him in this race.

“So, because of his Grade 1 penalty he has to give weight to all the other runners.”

While Nieuwenhuizen acknowledges it will be hard to beat Main Defender, he added: “But we will give him a go.”

Based on her last run when touched off by Mrs Geriatrix, White Pearl looks the filly to beat in the Starling Stakes.

She could, however, face a tough challenge from Egyptian Mau, who in her last run finished second behind Bavarian Beauty in the Grade 1 Thekwini Stakes.

If this Lucky Houdalakis-trained filly is not in need of this run, she has to be a factor in this feature.

Tony Peter saddles Leaving Las Vegas, a filly he rates highly. Her last run was in the Grade 2 Debutante over 1200m at Hollywoodbets Greyville where she ran third behind Cala Muretta. “Her prep for that race was messed up because our plan was to run her in the Thekwini Stakes so we were training her for a 1600m race,” said Peter.

“But she drew very wide and we decided to run her in the Debutante so we had to change her work to prepare her a 1200m run.

“Unfortunately, she has not been blessed with good draw this time either, but she has natural early speed and her work has been very good.

“With a decent draw, I would have been quite confident.”