Supporters of Isn’t She Bonny may regroup and climb on the bandwagon. She is now back at Hollywoodbets Scottsville running in a 1000m Maiden Plate for fillies and mares (Race 1) after proving a bit uncontrollable on the Polytrack over 1200m.
She will strip fitter with it being her second run after a rest and it won’t be a shock to see her win but there is a horse who could defy the odds in that race.
Classical Chord was expected to need a lot more ground as she is out of a Galileo mare and her half-brother, Tommy The Kidd, who needs a few kilometres, who has yet to win a maiden in umpteen starts, is testament to that.
She didn’t show in that 1200m event but next time out, over an even sharper 1000m at Hollywoodbets Greyville, she finished a prominent fourth and was only 1.20 lengths off subsequent Grade 1 winning Canadian Summer among other horses who are now running in handicaps. Strong form indeed.
Interestingly, she is running after a 309-day layoff but the comment from the Mike Miller yard is ‘working well at home’. She may have progressed since and a solid each-way bet looks in order.
El Rey Viene should be another strong runner for the bang-in-form Duncan Howells yard. However, in his last race the bay gelding didn’t like having the pace dictated to him. The horse, whose Spanish name means ‘The King is coming’, had to work with the pace handed to him by eventual impressive winner El Dante.
He is now back in Race 3, a MR 78 Handicap over 1750m, where there looks to be no other Scottsville frontrunning specialists and he could bounce back to winning ways.
Trainer Fanie Bronkhorst is one of two Highveld-based trainers who is bringing a raiding party down to KwaZulu-Natal. He has Flag Bearer in the above-mentioned race, and he has won from the front, but this distance could be sharp for him.
Bronkhorst’s best runner on the day could be Tinder Dry (Race 8) who is in very good form. She had a few useful geldings beaten in her penultimate and that form line could be too good for steadily improving youngster Sea Goddess.
Clive Robinson
