Turffontein hosts a bumper 10-race card that includes seven features – a Listed race, a pair of two-year-old Grade 3 contests as well as a quartet of Grade 2 events, with two 1160m sprints and two over 2000m.
This meeting signals the end of the Autumn season on the Highveld with the KwaZulu-Natal Winter Season kicking off in Durban and Pietermaritzburg from the beginning of May.
And, is the norm on feature-race days across the country, title-chasing Richard Fourie looks likely to make hay on his Highveld visit and continue to chip away at Anthony Delpech’s record of the most number of wins (334) in a season.
At the time of writing, Fourie has ridden 260 winners and is well on track to surpass that mark with 13 weeks of the current campaign remaining, and Saturday’s feature-race fixture in Johannesburg should bring with it another four victories to add to Fourie’s tally.
Well-bred Legend Of Arthur impressed over 1450m on the Inside track four weeks ago, scoring by 5.25 lengths under Fourie. On the evidence of that fluent success, this Sean Tarry-trained two-year-old son of Lancaster Bomber should improve further for the step up to 1600m in Race 1 to get the formidable jockey-trainer combination off to a winning start, a tone likely to be set the much of the card.
Last season’s Equus Champion Two-Year-Old Filly, Mrs Geriatrix, has raced twice in sprints on Turffontein’s Standside track, winning both. She lost her unbeaten record (in three starts) at the course when finishing third in the Grade 1 Empress Club Stakes over 1600m last time out but reverts to 1160m – a distance over which she boasts a 100% record – in Race 5, the Grade 2 Camelia Stakes, with a legitimate winning chance.
This diminutive chestnut filly, who was ridden to victory on debut by Calvin Habib, has won five of her subsequent 10 starts under Fourie and has only finished out of the first four twice in that time. When finishing seventh in the Grade 2 Cartier Sceptre Stakes at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth, Mrs Geriatrix ran on powerfully from a hopeless position to finish just 2.05 lengths off the winner, October Morn (to whom she was conceding 2kg). The latter has since boosted that form by finishing second in consecutive Grade 3 events.
On that form, Tarry’s charge holds re-opposing Kiss Me Captain who is the joint best-weighted runner in the Camelia Stakes lineup.
Fellow three-year-old fillies, One Fell Swoop and White Pearl, the other joint best-weighted entrant, make for attractive Swinger and Exacta – even Trifecta – bet inclusions and look most likely to chase Mrs Geriatrix across the line.
Having contested all three legs of the Wilgerbosdrift Triple Tiara, during which she finished third in the 1600m Grade 2 Gauteng Fillies Guineas and second in the SA Oaks over 2450m with cheekpieces fitted, Candice Dawson-trained My Soul Mate represents one of Fourie’s better rides on the card in Race 6, the TAB Igugu Stakes, a Grade 2 event for fillies and mares over 2000m.
Varsfontein Stud’s three-year-old filly is the highest-rated and best-weighted runner in the race and this daughter of their resident stallion, Master Of My Fate, will have little trouble cutting back in distance after her creditable Oaks performance. She should, in fact, be better suited to this shorter trip having hit the front 400m out in the Oaks before being outrun late in the finish by Francis Ethel.
Beating Wings, who finished two lengths adrift of My Soul Mate, renews rivalry on similar terms so isn’t likely to turn the tables.
The pick of the Fourie-Tarry runners on the card is, undoubtedly, Grade 1-winning juvenile Lucky Lad in Race 8, the Grade 2 Senor Santa Stakes over 1160m. This exciting son of Champion Sire Gimmethegreenlight has run two encouraging comeback races and looks primed to resume winning ways in his peak outing.
Tarry’s star three-year-old colt caught the eye on when finishing third in the Grade 3 Man O’ War sprint on his reappearance in February before confirming he retains all of his ability with a fast-finishing second to familiar foe Sandringham Summit in the Grade 2 Hawaii Stakes over 1400m three weeks ago.
Although slightly out at the weights with stablemate and last-start Winter Greeting, Lucky Lad is worthy of a confident Win bet and is likely to prove a popular exotic-bet banker, especially given Tarry’s decision to fit him with blinkers for the first time which should sharpen him up over this shorter trip and see Fourie position his mount nearer the speed entering the business end of the contest.
Elsewhere on the card, Buffalo Storm Cody is likely to be all the rage in the TAB Grade 3 Protea Stakes (Race 3) over 1100m after his dominant wide-margin debut success over 1000m by nine lengths, while it could pay to side with Simply Majestic in the fillies’ equivalent – the TAB Grade 3 Pretty Polly Stakes in Race 4 over the same distance.
Three-year-old geldings Pure Predator and Hotarubi ought to acquit themselves competitively in the Grade 2 TAB Colorado King Stakes (Race 7) over 2000m after holding their own in consecutive Grade 1 legs of the Triple Crown behind Purple Pitcher. However, Mike de Kock’s Aragosta is worth siding with after his encouraging last-start third in the Grade 1 Premier’s Champions Challenge over the same course and distance three weeks ago under Marco van Rensburg, who retains the ride.
Clive Robinson
