There is an old adage in horseracing that one should follow a horse until it gets beaten and that could well apply to Zinovi.
This five-year-old gelding has set up a remarkable record of 10 wins and nine places from 27 runs, but this Heavenly Blue gelding has suddenly hit a purple patch. In his last eight runs he has notched up six wins and a third place. There were excuses for that defeat as well as his one unplaced which was when he travelled to Johannesburg to run in the Grade 2 Charity Mile over 1600m which was run in heavy going.
This Alan Greeff-trained runner will be looking for his fourth successive victory when he lines up on Race 4, a Pinnacle Stakes over 1600m on the turf. He comes into the race as the best weighted runner by at least 3kg and he looks to be a standout bet on the eight-race card.
What makes Zinovi even more remarkable is that he is equally at home on both turf and Polytrack and what makes that significant is that in last four weeks all the turf meetings had to be moved to the Polytrack owing to heavy rains across the Eastern Cape.
Richard Fourie has a good rapport with Zinovi having ridden him six times for four wins and two places.
The obvious dangers look to be Zatara Magic and Lanciafiamme.
Zatara Magic is trained by Dean Smith, and this six-year-old gelding is another 10-time winner. However, he is likely to find 1600m a touch too short and is probably using this race as a preparation for the Port Elizabeth Gold Cup over 3200m on Friday 10 July.
Nevertheless, he will be ridden by Craig Zackey and that is one reason why Zatara Magic deserves to be respected.
Lanciafiamme is trained by Cliffie Miller and this four-year-old Fire Away gelding has beaten both Zinovi and Zatara Magic but has only managed to do that once recently. On all the other occasions he found them too good and unless the other two have an off day, Lanciafiamme may have to settle with a third place.
Marco van Rensburg will be back aboard this gelding.
Clive Robinson
