Vaal’s Classic track hosts an eight-race card on Thursday 11 September and it could pay to follow jockeys Serino Moodley and Gavin Lerena at the Highveld meeting as both will likely ride a double.
Leading KwaZulu-Natal jockey Moodley has hit the ground running this season, riding 18 winners already in the first six weeks of the new campaign – a mark bettered only by Craig Zackey (21). The Durban-based rider has six rides on the day and should find the target in Race 6 aboard consistent Pretty Analia for Fanie Bronkhorst.
This six-year-old Captain Of All mare got going late when a fast-finishing third over 1800m in her first for the stable with Moodley in the irons. The drop back to 1600m will suit Pretty Analia and it is encouraging that the in-form rider continues his association with Bronkhorst’s inmate.
Moodley’s burgeoning partnership with St John Gray has yielded a win, a second and a third from their three runners together, which augurs well for the chances of Guerilla Warfare in Race 8 over 1600m. This son of New Predator confirmed the form and improvement of his previous outing, a close-up second over 1400m on Turffontein’s Standside track in mid-July, by finishing a game-in-defeat third over 1600m last time out, despite carrying a two-point penalty. The Gray-trained four-year-old gelding needs only to repeat that performance to recapture the winning thread.
Champion Jockey Lerena is good value for a race-to-race double earlier on the card, beginning in Race 4 over 1450m. He rides promising three-year-old filly Vamanos for trainer Roy Magner whose decision to step the Gimmethegreenlight filly up to this extended trip after two encouraging introductory sprints could prove a masterstroke. Vamanos should improve with experience and with each step up in distance, especially as her full-brother Countdown won up to 1600m.
Sparingly raced Peregrine Falcon, another of Gimmethegreenlight’s progeny, should provide Lerena and his followers with the second of a quickfire double in Race 5 over 1200m. The lightly raced five-year-old gelding has finished third and second respectively in two starts on the Highveld since joining Fabian Habib’s stable and he won’t need to improve much – if at all – in his peak outing to get back to winning ways under Lerena, who rides Peregrine Falcon for the first time.
Clive Robinson
