Clive Robinson
The first leg of the annual Work Riders’ Challenge was literally swept away by rain last Tuesday, but a decision was taken to introduce a new meeting on Tuesday 15 November to replace the one that was lost.
This meeting will take place on the Vaal Classic course which means that all races over 1200m and above are run around the turn.
Sam Mosia has been one of the most successful work riders in this event over the years and he will be looking to defend the title he won last season.
The Challenge is run over three legs with the second taking place on 26 January with the finale on Thursday 13 April.
Work riders score points for each top-four finish with 10 points for a win, seven points for second, five for third and three for fourth.
All eight races are for maidens.
There was little question looking at the original card that Mosia’s best ride on the card was Prime Example and luckily trainer Ashley Fortune has declared her charge to run Race 6, a Maiden Plate over 2400m.
This Canford Cliffs three-year-old was touched off by strong favourite Otto Luykens last time over 1800m and looks the runner best suited to the additional 600m this time.
He went off at 20-1 last time which was a slight surprise as his form had improved markedly since Fortune started racing him in blinkers two runs prior to that.
Based on that last run Prime Example is likely to go off a very short-priced favourite but does look to be the stand-out bet on the card, especially as most of his opposition has extremely moderate form and will need major improvement to win this race.
His main danger looks to be Harold The Duke who has at least raced over distance. The four-year-old son of Duke Of Marmalade was just touched off over 2600m at Turffontein in April but his subsequent form has been unexciting.
However, he was gelded in August and this will be his first run back so one could see lots of improvement from Dianne Stenger’s charge in spite of the fact he has not raced for 84 days.
