Jack Milner
Saturday’s four sprint races over 1200m at Hollywoodbets Scottsville looked tricky to navigate but the one saving grace for punters was that Sean Tarry-trained Green Diamond looked the one likely banker on the card.
However, the classy filly was withdrawn from the Grade 1 Gold Medallion on Friday morning after she returned an abnormal blood count. That often indicates that the horse could be incubating some sort of illness and with this filly appearing to be special, it is not worth taking any chances with her.
The sprint meeting, comprising four highly supported races over 1200m, comprises a number of betting opportunities for punters.
In fact, TAB has afforded bettors an entire weekend of exciting punting.
There will be three TAB Jackpot One carryovers for this weekend – R100,000 to Fairview Friday and Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Sunday, and specifically R500,000 to tomorrow’s ’s Scottsville meeting.
The likely pool for Fairview and Kenilworth is R500,000 while Scottsville is likely to get to R1.5 million. Fairview on Friday, in fact, got up to R528,715.
The Jackpot at that meeting will include all four sprints, the Gold Medallion for two-year-olds, the Allan Robertson Championship for two-year-old fillies, the South African Fillies Sprint – all Grade 1 races – and the Grade 2 Golden Horse Sprint.
While the Gold Medallion carries prize money of R1.5 million, the other three have purses of R1 million each.
One may now have to put three or four runners in Leg 2 of the Jackpot with the likes of Military Command, Zalatoris, Charming Cheetah and African Pride looking to be the main contenders.
That does leave punters looking to find another option for a banker and perhaps Justin Snaith can provide the answer.
He sends out Grade 1 winner Double Grand Slam in the South African Fillies Sprint and while 1200m could be a touch short, she will be racing fresh and that often evokes a great run in a sprint, especially from a runner with class. She could come with a late rattle and, with Richard Fourie up, come out best.
Of course, there is little between her and Rascova on form and that is another runner to be wary of. She has changed stables and is now with Tarry, who usually has a good day at this meeting.
Being a handicap, it comes as no surprise that the Golden Horse Sprint has engendered a full field of 16 runners and also has two reserve runners.
That has made the race probably the most competitive of the four and that is reflected in the betting with bookmakers pricing up Tenango, winner of the Grade 3 Champagne Stakes over 1200m at HWB Kenilworth, as the 6-1 favourite.
The Candice Bass-Robinson-trained four-year-old gelding is in good form at the moment with four wins and two seconds in his last six races. Andrew Fortune has ridden the son of Canford Cliffs in his last two races and will be up again for this event.
However, there was a lot to like about the performance of Winds Of Change in the Computaform Sprint when he finished just 0.40 behind William Robertson in third place. He did suffer some interference at the start and then again latter stages but the objection was overruled.
Nevertheless, he will now carry 2kg less, has landed No 1 draw and has Gavin Lerena up.
This is an open race and it would be advisable to include as many runners as the budget allows in your Jackpot.
Jack Milner’s selections
Race 1: 9 Let's Go Lola, 8 World Of Royalty, 7 Mfethu, 2 Master Silvano
Race 2: 5 Terminal Velocity, 2 Fine Wine, 3 Promise Of Fire, 14 Royal Mermaid
Race 3: 8 Greenlight Skye, 2 Princess Ilaria, 6 Streisand, 5 One Smart Cookie
Race 4: 8 Ingqwele, 7 Terminator, 11 Gurkha, 14 Gran Canaria
Race 5: 10 Direct Hit, 5 One Fine Winter, 2 Wild Wild Green, 7 Elegantrix
Race 6: 8 Charming Cheetah, 1 Zalatoris, 4 African Pride, 7 Military Command
Race 7: 1 Double Grand Slam, 10 Asiye Phambili, 5 Rascova, 8 Mia Moo
Race 8: 1 Winds Of Change, 8 Truth, 11 Melech, 16 Tenango
Race 9: 3 Guy Gibson, 2 Vihaan's Web, 5 Un Bel Di, 15 Isivivane
Race 10: 7 Now I Got You, 4 One Irish Rover, 1 Kotinos, 6 Cotton Ron
BEST BET
Race 7: 1 Double Grand Slam
VALUE BET
Race 3: 8 Greenlight Skye
BEST SWINGER
Race 1 8x9
BIPOT
R320
Leg 1: 2, 3, 5, 13, 14
Leg 2: 2, 5, 6, 8
Leg 3: 7, 8
Leg 4: 5, 10
Leg 5: 1, 4, 7, 8
Leg 6: 1
PLACE ACCUMULATOR
R432
Leg 1: 2, 6, 8
Leg 2: 7, 8
Leg 3: 5, 10
Leg 4: 1, 4, 8
Leg 5: 1
Leg 6: 1, 8, 11, 6
Leg 7: 2, 3, 5
PICK 6
R2500
Leg 1: 1, 7, 8, 11, 14
Leg 2: 5, 10
Leg 3: 1, 2, 4, 7, 8
Leg 4: 1
Leg 5: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 16
Leg 6: 2, 3, 5, 6, 15
JACKPOT 1
R100
Leg 1: 5, 10
Leg 2: 1, 2, 4, 7, 8
Leg 3: 1
Leg 4: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 16
JACKPOT 2
R300
Leg 1: 1
Leg 2: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 16
Leg 3: 2, 3, 5, 6, 15
Leg 4: 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8