This weekend you can sit back and enjoy quality racing from racetracks around the globe loaded with exciting betting opportunities. There are Listed and Graded races and we have a potential banker on Saturday afternoon’s card at Turffontein. And in Durban on Sunday a few visiting horses look hard to beat as the KZN winter season gets into swing. In all, a cracker weekend for TAB customers!
Following the scratching of Golden Rule from the Listed East Cape Nursery over 1200m, Alan Greeff’s unbeaten filly Splicethemainbrace could prove hard to beat against the colts in the East Cape Nursery over the same course and distance. She has improved with every run and has a powerful finish, reflected in her excellent 400m-to-finish times published in ComputaForm. Jockey bookings suggest that Family Law is the perhaps the pick of Gavin Smith’s four well-performed entries, but stablemate Silvonian also comes into the reckoning on his fast time over the course and distance recently.
The Listed Whitsbury Manor Stud/British EBF Lansdown Stakes over 1000m at Bath (Race 4) is the best race on Friday’s UK schedule. This is a traditionally competitive event for fillies and mares in which Pinafore, trained by William Haggas, should go close if she returns from a rest near the level of her good form late last year.
Top four-year-old Chill Chibi suffered a setback in January, ruling him out of the Hong Kong Classic Mile, but his two comeback runs in March were good. He finished fourth in the BMW Hong Kong Derby three weeks ago and that represents sound form. He should go close to winning on his return to 1800m in Race 9. Flaming Rabbit and fast-finisher Running Glory will ensure he has a race on his hands. The meeting starts at 07:00.
Joe Soma’s runners are back on the boil and the Turffontein trainer has bagged three winners and eight places from his last 21 runners. Soma’s useful gelding Brave Viking, whose merit rating has dropped to a competitive 87, has jockey Muzi Yeni booked and looks ready to post his fourth career win in Race 7 over 1450m, the topliner at the meeting. He is drawn 10 of 10, however, and on the tight inside track trainer Sean Tarry’s recent acquisition Champion Warrior is likely to make a bold bid from an inside draw. The same goes for last season’s classic contender Money Heist, who comes off a short rest and is better over further, but could improve in his first outing for trainer Tony Peter. Tarry’s Jordan looks the best bet on the card in Race 6 over 1800m. He was a good second to feature contender Marauding Horde in a slightly stronger race last month.
SUGGESTED R1,800 PICK 6 (R360 for 20%):
Leg 1: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7
Leg 2: 1, 2, 4, 5, 7
Leg 3: 3
Leg 4: 2, 5, 6, 8, 11
Leg 5: 2, 4, 7
Leg 6: 2, 3, 7, 8
There is more to Saturday’s Grade 3 Champagne Stakes over 1200m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth than meets the eye. Candice Bass-Robinson’s smart three-year-old filly October Morn looks the one to beat at first glance, but will be facing some hard-knocking older males, including Vaughan Marshall’s capable six-year-old Captain Fontane. The seven-time winner has been pulling hard over 1400m and further in recent starts, but reverts to 1200m and should be easier to settle off a faster pace in this sprint. He won three times over this distance earlier in his career and will probably start at value odds considering his recent disappointments. Trainer Lucinda Woodruff’s Cafe Culture is fast, on the up and handily weighted, though it could be telling that regular partner Richard Fourie has opted to ride recent Fairview feature winner Countdown.
Three Group 3 races start the day at Newbury this Saturday. John and Thady Gosden’s Frankel colt Arrest is firm early favourite for Race 1, the Dubai Duty Free Finest Surprise Stakes over 2400m. The father-son combo has another well-fancied runner in last season’s Listed Montrose Stakes winner Regal Jubilee. This daughter of Frankel runs in Race 2, the Dubai Duty Free Stakes over 1400m. Ralph Beckett’s unbeaten Zoum Zoum will be all the rage in Race 3 over 1400m.
Lim’s Kosciuszko, the highest-rated runner in Singapore, looks poised for his 19th career win in the Group 2 EW Barker Trophy over 1400m. He started 2024 with a bang recently, scoring on the polytrack with 59.5kgs. He was impressive considering he wasn’t wound up for the run. Fully fit now, he will be giving plenty of weight away to the rest of the field again, but trainer Daniel Meagher said on Tuesday: “He can carry the weight and win. Obviously, the handicaps give all the other horses a chance to beat him, but he’s carried this type of weight before and won. He will be close to his best body weight too. I can’t fault the horse.” The meeting kicks off at 06:30.
Capetonians Justin Snaith, Michelle Rix and Glen Kotzen, as well as Highveld trainer Weiho Marwing, have several excellent runners at this Hollywoodbets Greyville meeting. Snaith’s Cape Classic contender The Grey King and Durban July hopeful Mucho Dinero could fight out Race 4 over 1600m, a R150,000 Pinnacle Stakes that carries the biggest prize of the day. Snaith’s Dark Winter looks likely to enjoy the 1400m of Race 1. She has progressive form and will be hard to peg back. Rix’s Pilot Flame (Race 2) has impressed in two starts to date and her trainer looks to have found the right race for her to exit the ranks of the maidens. It's much the same for Kotzen’s Buzz Bomb (Race 3), who has faced stronger in the Cape’s juvenile features. Marwing’s fillies Soldier’s Eye (Race 5) and Last Ginger (Race 8), are coming off narrow recent defeats and have good draws.