Clive Robinson
There is some great fare on offer at Hollywoodbets Greyville the day after Christmas so coupling a few in multiples could get you some post-holiday gifts.
Best bet on the day may actually come up in Race 7, the Grade 3 Flamboyant Stakes over 1600m, where Grade 1 winning juvenile, now three years old, Canadian Summer, could fight it out with among others, Grade 1-placed Sound Of Warning.
It is quite an interesting matchup as Sound Of Warning is best weighted some 6kg over Canadian Summer and is bred to be even better over this distance even though her Grade 1 second and third placings were over 1200m.
She showed a lack of enthusiasm in sprints recently, prompting trainer Sean Tarry to try her over 1450m, and she duly obliged, winning with something in hand. Her dam won the Grade 2 Gauteng Fillies Guineas over 1600m and the 1800m Grade 1 SA Fillies Classic so she should have no problem with Greyville’s 1600m.
But Canadian Summer is a Grade 1 champion, winning the Thekwini Stakes as a juvenile, and her victory came over this very course and distance, so she is proven. Add to that a smashing run in her comeback when second to top KwaZulu-Natal-trained colt See It Again, giving him 1.5kg, and the hardy Oratorio filly is starting to look a very hard nut to crack.
Bold players will back her for the win, but the professional punters will go for the boxed Exacta and Swinger with Sound Of Warning.
The Listed Christmas Handicap (Race 6) 35 minutes earlier is not as straight forward, but all of Pyromaniac, Master Of Destiny, Captain Casey and Mr Gonzales could prove too strong for the rest and it looks worth boxing these in Swingers and Trifectas.
All of Asaruludu (Race 1), Johnny’s Hope (Race 3) and Maria Corolina (Race 8) could make it a red-letter day for well-priced favourites.
