News

Pining to stop the moon

Written by Jack Milner | Jan 24, 2021 11:40:00 AM

Norfolk Pine can end the run of Jaeger Moon in Race 5 at Fairview on Monday.

24 JAN 2021

Jaeger Moon has been a revelation for the Gavin Smith yard and will be looking for his fifth successive victory at Fairview on Monday.

The son of Capetown Noir lines up in Race 5, a MR 94 Handicap over 1600m on the Polytrack and will once again be ridden by Marco van Rensburg.

Jaeger Moon has only raced seven times and other than his debut run in which he finished unplaced (it was a two-year-old feature which was won by Global Drummer), the three-year-old colt has not been out of the first four.

He really came into his own when pushed up in distance and although he won his maiden over 1600m, his last three wins have been over 2000m. He showed a lot of guts last time when hanging on grimly to keep Green Dragon at bay, and the pair will meet again on this occasion.

Green Dragon came out and won her next start and received a penalty for that win, but the Alan Greeff-trained mare will be 0.5kg better off this time. The issue with the five-year-old daughter of Gimmethegreenlight is you have to go back to July 2019 to find the last time she placed over 1600m or less and since then, her best form has been over further.

That should still give Jaeger Moon the edge, but he could end up getting stymied by Grant Paddock-trained Norfolk Pine.

The five-year-old Fort Wood gelding has run seven times since joining Paddock from Brett Crawford’s Western Cape yard and has notched up four wins, three of them over 1600m.

Although the pair have not met, they have been contesting races of similar strength and the distance could favour Norfolk Pine.

Louis Mxothwa takes the ride for the first time.      

 

Jack Milner’s selections

 

Race 1: 1 Autumn Sky, 2 Al’s Lass, 6 Samara, 8 Carmela

Race 2: 1 Stage Dance, 4 Victoria Tower, 2 Mesmerizing Moon, 3 Off Pat 

Race 3: 2 Pacific Duke, 6 Chai, 8 Cape Batis, 3 Super Noir

Race 4: 9 Upper Ten, 10 What A Thrill, 1 Ghalyoon, 4 Imperious Duke

Race 5: 3 Norfolk Pine, 6 Jaeger Moon, 5 Green Dragon, 2 Philos

Race 6: 2 Exion, 1 Let’s Blaze, 5 Selailai, 7 Reach For The Line

Race 7: 4 Lumiere, 1 Pluviophile, 7 Natural Jade, 8 Exaltation

Race 8: 7 Mojito Magic, 1 Precious Stone, 2 Cloud Atlas, 10 All In Line

 

BEST BET

Race 2 No 1 Stage Dance

VALUE BET

Race 6 No 2 Exion

BEST SWINGER

Race 2 1×4

 

BIPOT

R108

Leg 1: 1, 2, 6

Leg 2: 1

Leg 3: 2, 6, 8 

Leg 4: 9, 10

Leg 5:  3, 6

Leg 6: 1, 2, 5

 

PLACE ACCUMULATOR

R216

Leg 1: 1

Leg 2: 2, 6

Leg 3: 9, 10

Leg 4: 3, 5, 6

Leg 5: 1, 2, 5 

Leg 6: 1, 4 

Leg 7: 1, 2, 7

 

PICK 6:

R1620

Leg 1: 2, 6, 8

Leg 2: 9, 10

Leg 3: 3, 5, 6 

Leg 4: 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9

Leg 5: 1, 4, 7

Leg 6: 1, 2, 3, 7, 10

 

JACKPOT 1

R216

Leg 1: 1, 4, 9, 10

Leg 2: 3, 5, 6 

Leg 3: 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9

Leg 4: 1, 4, 7

 

JACKPOT 2

R270

Leg 1: 3, 5, 6 

Leg 2: 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9

Leg 3: 1, 4, 7

Leg 4: 1, 2, 3, 7, 10