After many weeks on the Polytrack, we finally return to turf racing, and there are some good feature races on this card.
Star Eastern Cape filly Anotherdanceforme takes her place in Race 7, the East Cape Paddock Stakes (Listed) over 1600m, but there is a field of 15 runners carded for this race.
There are also some Western Cape-trained runners set to make the trip.
Alan Greeff-trained Anotherdanceforme has won nine of her 10 starts. The daughter of Master Of My Fate scared away most of her rivals and was an easy and impressive East Cape Derby winner in May. That was on the Polytrack over 2200m, and she drops in distance for this race.
She has, however, won both her starts over this particular course and distance and has also been seen to good effect on soft tracks. Regular rider Richard Fourie has seven wins from eight rides aboard.
All of that suggests she will be hard to beat, but there are a couple of obstacles she will need to overcome this time around.
Drawn widest of all in stall No 15, and the fact that she gives weight to all her rivals, could see her having to work extra hard.
Greeff has five other runners carded, and the best of them could be Splicethemainbrace and Enchanting Choice, but one cannot rule out Silva City.
There are also some Western Cape rivals with ability who could pose threats. Roccapina represents trainer Candice Bass and will have JP van der Merwe in the saddle. She is fit and is well enough drawn.
Ice Rain is even better drawn in stall No. 3, and Serino Moodley should get a decent ride aboard her. Swiatek has lost some of her sparkle of late, but the Snaith stable usually does well when raiding this centre, and she is not out of it.
The Port Elizabeth Gold Cup (Non-Black Type) over 3200m is the other feature race on this card, and it should produce an exciting finish.
Bad Medicine has won five of his starts at this centre since joining trainer Kelly Mitchley, including over 2800m in April, so he will be many people’s idea of the likely winner. The Vercingetorix gelding goes a bit further this time around and was only a 0.50-length winner that day over his rival in this race, Home Reef.
That particular runner won this race last year and must be respected for that.
Bournemouth, who represents the Greeff-Fourie combination, has tried twice to win this race and was runner-up a couple of years ago. He does his best under Fourie.
The runner who could upset all three, however, is Gentleman Joe. The Andre Nel-trained seven-year-old gelding receives a lot of weight from those runners, and although he has not gone this far before, he has won over 2500m, and Moodley knows how to get the best out of this gelding.
Clive Robinson
