Top fillies clash in Vaal headliner

Jack Milner

An intriguing Graduation Plate for fillies and mares over 1600m tops the card on the Vaal Classic track on Tuesday.

In races which contain set weights one can often go with the best weighted runners, but that is not necessarily the case on this occasion.

Topping that particular column in Race 3 is Orarari Gold, trained by Corrie Lensley. This daughter of Oratorio has been priced up favourite and deserves her place at the top of the bookmakers’ boards as she is the best-performed runner in the field.

The three-year-old daughter of Oratorio has also had three runs in Graded races and finished not far off the winner in all three.

She produced the third fastest finish in the Grade 1 Thekwini Stakes over 1600m at Hollywoodbets Greyville to finish a 1.75-length fifth behind Canadian Summer. She suffered interference when sixth behind Miss Daisy in the Grade 3 Starling Stakes over 1400m at Turffontein and then overraced when fourth to Emirate Gina in the Grade 3 Fillies Mile, also at Turffontein.

She takes quite a drop in class this time and with Muzi Yeni up, does look the runner to beat.

The obvious danger is Tulip Tree from the Stuart Pettigrew yard, but in order to have any chance of winning this she will need to have improved substantially on the last time they met.

However, that was in the maidens and it was Tulip Tree’s second start, but on that occasion Orarari Gold did win by four lengths.

Since that race, this daughter of What A Winter has run four times for two wins and two close seconds so there has definitely been improvement, but whether it’s enough, only the race will tell.

Another runner of interest is Tipsy Tarragon from the Tony Peter yard. This daughter of Dynasty has been running in the Western Cape and after a place and two successive wins respectively, this daughter of Dynasty took on some of the best of her sex in three feature races.

They were the Grade 3 Diana Stakes, the Grade 2 Western Cape Fillies Championship and finally the Grade 1 Cape Fillies Guineas.

She clearly was not good enough at this stage of her career to tackle the likes of Ciao Bella and Make It Snappy but at this level it could be a different story.

Calvin Habib takes the ride.

Jack Milner’s selections

Race 1: 4 Xplicit Content, 5 American Graffiti, 6 Godspeed, 3 Linkin Navigator

Race 2: 2 Divine Moonlight, 6 White Hills, 7 Women Of Fame, 4 Ice Star

Race 3: 1 Orarari Gold, 3 Tulip Tree, 2 Tipsy Tarragon, 6 Gimmealight

Race 4: 1 Quixote, 2 Silvano's Song, 3 Raptor Island, 6 Jet Dynasty

Race 5: 7 Just Be Nice, 2 Cheringoma, 4 October Fair, 3 Light Of Day

Race 6: 7 Elembee, 1 Littlemarysunshine, 2 Lady Regent, 5 Call The Wind

Race 7: 4 Wind Water, 2 Thymetoshine, 1 Ipso Facto, 7 Storm Dictator

Race 8: 4 Pinch Hit, 7 Save The Queen, 2 Fog Bank, 8 After Hours

BEST BET

Race 6 No 7 Elembee

VALUE BET

Race 5 No 7 Just Be Nice

BEST SWINGER

Race 1 4x5

BIPOT

R144

Leg 1: 4, 5

Leg 2: 2, 4, 6, 7

Leg 3: 1, 2, 3

Leg 4: 1, 2

Leg 5: 2, 4, 7

Leg 6: 7

PLACE ACCUMULATOR

R216

Leg 1: 2, 6, 7

Leg 2: 1, 3

Leg 3: 1, 2

Leg 4: 2, 4, 7

Leg 5: 7

Leg 6: 2, 4

Leg 7: 2, 4, 7

PICK 6

R1440

Leg 1: 1, 2, 3, 6

Leg 2: 1, 2, 3

Leg 3: 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8

Leg 4: 7

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

Leg 6: 2, 4, 7, 8

JACKPOT 1

R90

Leg 1: 1, 2, 3

Leg 2: 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8

Leg 3: 7

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

JACKPOT 2

R120

Leg 1: 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8

Leg 2: 7

Leg 3: 1, 2, 4, 6, 7

Leg 4: 2, 4, 7, 8