Jack Milner: Trainer Paul Peter has got his season off to a great start and proved that on Sunday when horses from his yard won both Grade 2 races at Turffontein as well as three other winners.
He can pick up where he left off at the Vaal today when he sends out Shimmerlindt in Race 1, a Work Riders Maiden Plate over 1000m.
The daughter of Rafeef made her debut at Turffontein in July when she went off a 14-10 favourite, also in a Work Riders Maiden Plate for fillies and mares over the same distance.
She lost ground at the start and pulled up lame, but still managed to finish third, beaten 1.75 lengths by Country Mile.
She comes back from a 72-day break for this race and will be coming up against the colts on this occasion. However, she does get a 2.5kg sex allowance and that is sure to help work rider Phillip Mlangeni.
She is also likely to appreciate that extra give in the ground following the rains over the past few days.
One of the races to get called off last week when lightning brought a early end to the Vaal meeting was a Pinnacle Stakes over 1000m.
The event has been reconstituted as Race 4 at this meeting but only seven of the original 10 will line-up.
When it come to plate races, one can often whittle it down to two or three runners but in this case, one can make a winning argument for almost all of them.
The best weighted runner is Mind Reader, a five-year-old mare trained by Roy Magner. The stable is in top form and this daughter of Visionaire has the ability to win this event. If one looks at the form of the Grade 1 Computaform Sprint over 1000m at Turffontein in May, she had Bold Ransom and Rivarine behind her and is better weighted with both runners.
The one problem is she has not raced since finishing unplaced in the Grade 1 Allan Robertson over 1200m at Scottsville on 6 June.
While she still could win, Magner is probably looking at a couple of feature races during the summer season on the Highveld so it might be better to look for a runner whose fitness will not be an issue.
Bold Ransom, Rapid Fire and Valyrian King answer that call. They contested a Pinnacle Stakes over 1000m at Turffontein in August and Mike and Adam Azzie-trained Rapid Fire touched off Valyrian King by a short head with Bold Ransom in third place.
Rapid Fire is now 1.5kg worse off with the other two and that should make this very close. However, Bold Ransom is better than that last run and with Warren Kennedy back in the irons the Peter-trained gelding gets the nod to add a seventh victory to his tally.