Very seldom do you see a meeting in the Eastern Cape go by without two winners for the Alan Greeff-Richard Fourie combination, and very often it is three or more winners.
On Friday 2 May, two particular runners from this formidable team catch the eye: Holocene in Race 3 and Mercantour in Race 5.
Holocene takes his place in a MR 74 Handicap over 1600m on the Polytrack. This gelding has had some poor draws of late and is again not well drawn this time round, but he does seem better than his rivals over this distance.
Mercantour competes in a Pinnacle Stakes over 1200m. This gelded son of Var has won six of his 33 starts and hinted he is ready to win again with some cracking recent runs. The five-year-old was fourth on his local debut when just 1.6-lengths behind local star sprinter Fairy Knight over 1200m on the turf. He followed that up with a good third, 3.5-lengths behind Kingdundee over 1000m on this surface. He is better over this distance and should go close to winning.
When it comes to racing in the Eastern Cape, it is usually very difficult to find a winner in the last race, as they are usually big-field handicaps. That is again the case for this meeting, but it might be worth going each-way with Perfect Trust.
This seven-year-old mare was hampered in her penultimate by an unfortunate saddle slip, so that run can be safely ignored. She is also clearly better than her last run and is at a career-low handicap mark, from which she might just make the frame.
Clive Robinson
