There’s plenty to look forward to on the Easter weekend racing calendar. Saturday’s meeting at Turffontein includes two apprentice handicaps, which add a layer of complexity to the Pick 6 and set the stage for a healthy dividend. It’s a prime opportunity for sharp punters to capitalise. Sunday’s Hollywoodbets Greyville meeting - postponed from Friday - looks slightly more straightforward with veteran jockey Andrew Fortune aboard several well-fancied runners. Good Friday action at Fairview could see the in-form Alan Greeff-Richard Fourie partnership notch another feature win - rely on them in your perms.
Trainer Alan Greeff won last year’s Listed East Cape Nursery over 1200m with his filly Splicethemainbrace. This year he’s aiming to beat the colts again with another quality filly Direct Hit. Greeff took this impressive daughter of Canford Cliffs to Kenilworth on Cape Derby Day for the Grade 3 Cape of Good Hope Nursery and she slammed her rivals. The form has been franked with the only two subsequent runners posting easy wins, a clear pointer to Direct Hit’s ability. She should keep her unbeaten record intact.
This Premier Race Day opens with a Listed event over 1600m and Andrew Balding and jockey Oisin Murphy join forces with Royal Playwright, the strong ante-post favourite. Runner-up in last year’s Group 2 Juddmonte Royal Lodge Stakes at Newmarket, he has been rested since December but meets a field of lesser quality and hails from a stable that has runners in good shape after breaks.
There are two Pick 6 legs in which punters can consider going light with just two runners - the others are open and comprise two apprentice handicaps, a 2850m marathon and an open MR 93 Handicap. Read All About It, who looks likely to relish a step up in trip, and Crystal Grove could battle it out in Leg 1 (Race 3 over 1400m). Bourbon Reserve shapes as the likely winner of Race 8 over 1000m, although his breathing issues remain a concern. So it may be wise to also include the returning Richard The First. He teams up with Piere Strydom for the first time, sheds the blinkers and is likely to make a strong comeback.
SUGGESTED R216 (10%) PICK 6 PERM (Leg 1 Race 3 @13:50):
Leg 1: 1, 2
Leg 2: FIELD (1-9)
Leg 3: 3, 4, 6
Leg 4: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6
Leg 5: 2, 3, 4, 8
Leg 6: 3, 9
Noah Khan is fresh off a dazzling Group 1 triumph over top galloper Antipodean in the Tunku Gold Cup last month. In career-best form, six-year-old Noah Khan re-unites with jockey Andre Da Silva and looks poised to complete a hat-trick of wins in a Supreme A contest over 1200m (Race 9) on a 12-race card at Kuala Lumpur. The meeting starts at 06:30.
Log-leading trainer John Size and top-gun jockey Zac Purton combine with Bundle Award in the day’s feature, the Hong Kong Lions Cup Handicap over 1800m (Race 6). The lightly-raced Australian-bred came from back in the pack to finish a respectable seventh in the Hong Kong Derby and meets a weaker field. He won his only previous 1800m race with impressive ease and can bounce back to winning form from an inside draw. The first race is off at 06:45.
Andrew Fortune has made an immediate impact since his return to the saddle, quickly reminding racing fans of his class. Following a hat-trick of wins at Kenilworth on Wednesday (two of them over 1600m from the widest of draws), Fortune has a number of good mounts, including Justin Snaith’s Indigenous (Race 2) and Gareth van Zyl’s Terminal Velocity (Race 3). Both have deep draws but will clearly be in the right hands. Fortune has plum draws on Snaith’s smart runners Get Impressed (Race 7) and Okavango (Race 8) and both have winning chances.