By Mark Van Deventer
Speed on the rail is still holding up at Hollywoodbets Durbanville so ROSA OSIRIA will have the ideal opportunity to shed her Maiden in the opener at 12h05 on Saturday.
She showed brisk early pace when third to Immah at Hollywoodbets Scottsville 41 days ago and may be able to sustain that energy a bit further given how quickly the Hollywoodbets Durbanville surface is playing. The Querari filly is drawn 3 and should be able to get the jump on 13 start Maiden, MRS SHACKLETON who is hung out at 8.
FRIDA KAHLO (Gimmethegreenlight ex Aquatint, related to former top sprinter Kasimir) is a debutant worth keeping tabs on – any market moves about Justin Snaith’s entry should be taken seriously.
Andre Nel runs a sophisticated training operation for Sabine Plattner up the West Coast, and they use a grass training track with a similar configuration to Hollywoodbets Durbanville to get their horses fit. That explains why even their inexperienced youngsters seems comfortable when competing at this country course and he has CORK BAY (Race 2), SPECIAL GLAMOUR (Race 3) ZEITZ (Race 4) and BERRY’S BOOGIE (Race 5) making their second career starts after showing promise on debut here.
CORK BAY ran on with purpose behind Peregrine Falcon after a slow start and should build on that effort with a run under his belt. KRIM (a good penultimate then a duff try which prompted Brett Crawford to send him to the sidelines) FENCING CAPTAIN (who finished ahead of CORK BAY when getting zapped on the post by Peregrine Falcon) SCOTTISH LINKS and BAGATELLE FLASH are his main menaces.
SPECIAL GLAMOUR moved up nicely behind Golden Angel 25 days ago over 1400m and is the form pick in the 13h15, assuming he is fine with the slight cutback in trip to 1250m. First timers, NOORDSBERG (Vercingetorix ex Don’t’ Stop Dancing) OCOTILLO (Querari ex Camphoratus) and BERRY CLIFFS (Canford Cliffs out of Strawberry Ice) are bred to be smart, so a market watch is advised.
Next, Nel saddles ZEITZ in P6 Leg 1, a Maiden sprint. The grey son of Vercingetorix dashed home strongly a month ago behind BOUNDLESS ENERGY and should come on dramatically second up. A horse who finished over two lengths in arrears of ZEITZ, Bounceback came out to run near to Nel’s Terminator last week to give the form a nice shape and Nel a useful collateral line.
That said, ZEITZ faces a posse of live threats. SCOTTISH KISS also finished off enthusiastically on debut behind Arctic Wizard; CRESCENT was close-up in Peregrine Falcon’s race (watch the outcome of Race 2 to see how that form stands up) and though CUMBRE VIEJA raced flat last time, he had good pace-pressing form prior to that regression.
Perhaps the biggest danger is SIR KORSKI who belied odds of 66/1 with an eye-catching first try behind Let It Be Said. Natural improvement puts Greg Ennion’s runner right into contention, too.
It’s rare for Snaith Racing to miss out on winning interviews at any meeting they contest. WILD APPLAUSE was live in the betting market on debut and duly ran forwardly – only Mai Sensation’s turn of foot proved too hard to resist. She managed to keep ahead of subsequent winner, Golden Angel to hold second so many will be tempted to bank her in Race 5 as form rival, TUSCAN ROMANCE is drawn 14 in this 1400m event which constitutes a major obstacle.
DOUBLE DASH (coming to hand now for Des McLachlan, and with a better marble of 2;) BERRY’S BOOGIE (another Nel entry coming in off an encouraging debut, well gated at 4) and WHITE WATERS who got mugged by My Only Weakness over the course and distance two weeks ago are sensible alternatives.
Races 6-10 are puzzling. With wider cover needed in the latter part of the card, PA, Bipot, Jackpot and P6 bettors may have to go short early on in those sequences to trim costs.
