Rainbow Reward is back at last and ready to resume his very promising career.
This lightly-raced four-year-old gelding by Rafeef has recorded two wins and three place-finishes from his six career runs, and will be back on track on Thursday 22 February at Turffontein.
He is carded to line up in Race 6, a Class B Middle Stakes sprint over 1000m.
Trained by Johan Janse van Vuuren, Rainbow Reward comes off a break of 173 days but if he can reproduce his earlier form, he is in with a chance and a half here.
The reason for his interrupted career, is that he has some issues with his feet.
While his feet problems necessitated a long break, Janse van Vuuren is cautiously optimistic that his charge will good a good account of himself.
“He pulled up really badly after his last run,” said the trainer after the final field was declared.
“He’s always had feet problems, even before he raced. He’s never been a super sound horse.
“We managed to get a couple of runs out of him but then it started giving us hassles again. He needed a rest.
“My farrier and my vets have done a lot of work with him.
“We feel he is ready to go now. I don’t think he’s ever going to be a really good mover, but watch him go down to the start and hopefully he comes out of the race okay so that we can carry on with him.
“At the moment we’ve got him going okay. Let’s just hope it lasts.”
Rainbow Reward has run with merit against some decent peers and elders, including the likes of four-time winner Flowerbomb, who has contested a couple of Grade 3-events this season, as well as Captain Hindsight, who has seen his Merit Rating shoot up from 94 to 110 since the start of the season.
If Rainbow Reward is anywhere near his best, he will be right there at the business end despite officially being way out at the weights, running off a rating of 86.
The biggest threat will probably come from stable companion Time Fo Orchids, who is aiming to complete a hat-trick.
This filly by Time Thief is at her best and looks to reconfirm why she was once rated as high as 107. That rating dropped to 90 before she hit her peak and racing off a rating oof 96 going into this contest, she looks to be on the up again.
Clive Robinson
