Bettors can get off to a winning start at Vaal on Tuesday with a sizeable bet on Callmewhenyouneedme in Race 1, a Juvenile Plate for fillies over 1200m up the straight.
Trainer Stuart Pettigrew’s charge has run against some of the top two-year-old fillies in the country and while only winning once, has not finished out of the top three in all five of her races.
After finishing a 1.50-length second to Leaving Las Vegas on debut Pettigrew had no qualms putting her in a feature race, the Listed Ruffian Stakes over 1000m, where she came up against a top filly in Sean Tarry-trained Mrs Geriatrix.
We did not know it at the time but that filly would go on to win two more feature races – the Grade 2 SA Fillies Nursery and the Grade 1 Allan Robertson Championship – so for Callmewhenyouneedme to finish a 2.75-length third in the Ruffian Stakes while still a maiden was a decent performance.
In her next start the daughter of Master Of My Fate shed her maiden with a start-to-finish victory over Divine Moonlight and then finished a 1.80-length third behind Ripple Effect, the filly who had finished second in the Ruffian Stakes.
Last time Pettigrew chose to drop her in the deep end when he put her against a bunch of older horses in a MR 76 Handicap for fillies and mares and in spite of having to concede weight to many of them, she went off a 14-10 favourite.
The race did not go her way and she got too far back and then started to hang. Nevertheless, Callmewhenyouneedme still managed to run on to finish third behind Samoa, a seven-time winning mare who she met at level weights.
This time she drops back into a race against her own age group and looks hard to beat, despite having to carry top weight of 60kg.
All of her previous races were over 1000m but the move up to 1200m should be ideal, judged on the manner in which she ran on last time.
Keagan de Melo, on the cusp of winning his first Champion Jockey title and who has been invited to ride in Hong Kong next season to join Lyle Hewitson and Luke Ferraris, will be taking the ride.
There are some interesting first-timers in the line up so it would be wise to keep an eye on any betting movements, but they will have to be very decent to get the better of Callmewhenyouneedme.
Clive Robinson
