Black Egret is one of those racehorses anybody would love to own. While he might not be in the top echelons of racing and there might not be many trophies of Graded race wins filling the cabinet at home, he is honest, reliable and has only once in 15 starts not earned a cheque for his connections.
This four-year-old son of Rafeef has a record of four wins, five seconds and five thirds and could level that table to five of each of those positions when he lines up in Race 8 at the Vaal on Thursday 23 November on a MR 101 Handicap over 1200m.
Black Egret was originally trained by Ashley Fortune but when they immigrated to Australia earlier in the year, he moved to trainer Clinton Binda. He has had five runs for the new yard and they have yielded two wins and three seconds.
Last time out Black Egret finished second behind Raven Black, but that winner does seem to be something special, and a big feature looks to be on his agenda in the next few months.
Black Egret gets a new jockey for this race as Muzi Yeni will jump into the irons on this occasion.
He has been in top form and having him aboard can only be an asset.
Aussenkehr is another who has been in good form since moving up to the Highveld and joining the Tony Peter yard. He arrived at the yard a maiden and is now a four-time winner but there is a concern that the handicapper may have caught up with him right now. He finished out of the places in his last race for the first time in 10 starts since joining Peter, which might corroborate that fact.
However, he cannot be underestimated and does need to be included in exotic bets. He too will have a first-time jockey in Calvin Habib.
But Peter does have some decent back-up in the form of Power Broker. This Master Of My Fate gelding is well in with Black Egret on their last meeting. However, the concern is that this four-year-old ran a shocker last time when finishing 21.25 lengths behind Raven Black.
There were some excuses, and he is due to run prior to this race so one needs to see how he performs before taking a final decision on his chances.
This is quite a potent field of sprinters
