The rescheduled Grade 3 World Sports Betting Gold Bowl has been added to Sunday’s card at Turffontein where they will race on the Standside track.
The marathon event over 3200m formed Race 10 at Turffontein last Saturday but the meeting had to be abandoned after Race 9 due to a thunderstorm over the course.
The move to Sunday has resulted in the race being reopened for nominations and Caradoc Gold Cup winner Nebraas has been added to the field.
It is interesting to see him in the race as the Sean Tarry-trained runner originally had two nominations for Champions Day, one for the WSB Premier’s Champions Challenge and another for this race. In the end, Tarry opted to run him in the Grade 1 race but any hope he may have had was blown away when the event over 2000m was run at a pedestrian pace which would not have suited Nebraas who is a top stayer.
As it has worked out, he now has the best of both worlds and can take his place in the Gold Bowl.
In the Gold Cup, which was run over 2850m, Nebraas got up to beat Shangani by 0.25 lengths. These two are arguably the best stayers in the country and they should fight this out yet again.
However, it is Shangani who should come out on top this time for two reasons. For a start, the Tony Peter-trained four-year-old is 2kg better off and secondly, the Gold Cup did not work out as planned.
Dark Travel set a decent pace which would have suited Shangani but she went too fast and faded out too quickly, leaving the Soft Falling Rain gelding in front far earlier than had been anticipated.
That suited Nebraas who quickened past Shangani and then managed to hold him off.
The additional distance will not be a problem for either of them.
Keagan de Melo will be back aboard Shangani while Piere Strydom takes the ride on Nebraas.
Such is the dominance of the pair that they both carry 62kg while Arumugam, the third highest weighted runner, has just 52kg on his back. But while he will be getting 10kg from both of them, he is well held on form on two runs.
Weiho Marwing’s charge has won a race over this course and distance but is was against weaker company.
Clive Robinson
