Thursday’s 10-race Vaal card has the look of a two-man show, with Craig Zackey and S’manga Khumalo holding the aces on a deep, bet-friendly card. The programme is packed with reliable formlines, improving sorts and favourable race conditions – ideal terrain for punters wanting to play aggressively rather than tentatively.
Khumalo should strike in Race 3 over 1400m with Mike Azzie-trained Winds Of Grace, a filly who has stretched patience but not faith. Ten starts without a win usually sets alarm bells ringing, but in her case the numbers say otherwise: two seconds from as many starts under Khumalo, including her latest effort over 1600m on Turffontein’s Inside track where she chased home a progressive type.
This Act Of War filly handles 1200m so the in-between trip is more a landing zone than a gamble. Given her consistency and the lack of depth among the opposition, this looks the right race at the right time. Winds Of Grace should get the job done.
Khumalo keeps the momentum going in Race 5 over 2000m aboard Kudzu, Johan Janse van Vuuren’s honest grinder who has been chipping away at a win and now gets conditions to cash in on. His last-start third behind The Ultimate King has aged beautifully – the winner has subsequently bagged the Grade 3 Victory Moon Stakes and probably earned himself a spot in the Grade 1 Summer Cup on 29 November.
Kudzu doesn’t flash brilliance but he ticks every punting box for a middle-distance handicap: consistent, fit, proven with the rider, and arriving on a peak run. He’s the kind you build multiples around.
Then the baton passes to Zackey, and the back end of the meeting becomes very “Pick 3-friendly”.
In Race 8 over 1700m, he partners Fanie Brokhorst’s Scarlett Heart, who broke her maiden last time with far more authority than the bare margin suggests. While a subsequent 12-week break is a slight query, she moves into handicap company off a manageable opening rating and represents the right profile, as a lightly raced three-year-old with upside and a senior rider in the irons at exactly the right time. She’s a runner you want on your side.
Race 9 features the headline act: Cosmic Speed, the Grade 1 Horse Chestnut Stakes winner who returns after 166 days off but lands in a conditions race tilted heavily in his favour. Sean Tarry rarely misses these placement opportunities, and Cosmic Speed doesn’t need to be cherry ripe to boss this 1400m event.
His Gold Challenge fourth behind Dave The King – beaten under a length – is divisions better than anything he meets here so Cosmic Speed is, in betting terms, a “good thing”.
The curtain drops with Race 10 over 1200m where Zackey legs up on Quiet Winter, a What A Winter filly who has found her rhythm and now climbs into handicap company still well short of her ceiling. Trainer Lucky Houdalakis tends to keep these sprinting fillies improving with racing, so Quiet WInter shapes as the right closer to the programme.
Clive Robinson
