Snaith runners likely to dominate at Greyville 1,900
With earnings of over R26m, it is understandable that champion trainer Sean Tarry has hogged the headlines this season.
However, Justin Snaith looks set to grab the limelight in Friday night’s R500,000 Betting World 1,900 at Greyville.
Snaith’s seasonal earnings stand at R15.4m and he makes no secret of the fact that he expects his team to do well during the Kwa-Zulu-Natal season.
His major hopes in Friday’s grade 2 race are Elusive Silva (Anthony Delpech) and It’s My Turn (Bernard Fayd’Herbe). The sponsors quote them at 22-10 and 9-2.
A winning performance from Elusive Silva may persuade Delpech to partner the fouryear-old in the Durban July in preference to stablemate Black Arthur, who failed to run a place in the recent Drill Hall Stakes.
Elusive Silva is an 8-1 chance for the July, but that will not be available if he takes top honours on Friday.
Stablemate It’s My Turn, a former Cape Derby winner, provides Snaith with strong back-up and Bernard Fayd’Herbe will get the best out of his mount.
The ante-post market has been active in the last 48 hours with Anton Marcus’ ride Master Switch shortening from 11-2 to 7-2 second favourite.
The worry about Geoff Woodruff’s runner is that he is a temperamental sort who might get stirred up by what should be a decent crowd for the meeting.
If he runs well, Master Switch could be Marcus’ July mount as the horse is owned by Markus Jooste and he is contracted to the Steinhoff boss.
With Gavin Lerena now riding in the UK, Greg Cheyne may feel this is his chance to land his first jockeys title and it is in his favour that he gets good mounts at Fairview every week.
He is not without a chance of taking Friday’s feature race on Prince Of Wales who is highly regarded but yet to really prove himself at the top level.
On May 10, the national log showed Cheyne was three winners behind Delpech with Anton Marcus and Craig Zackey next on the list.
Turffontein hosts a nine-race programme on Saturday and Tarry and veteran trainer Ormond Ferraris should both be among the winners at the city track. Code Writer, who represents the Tarry yard in the second race, looks the best bet on the card and should beat home Salmon Run and Free The Wind.
The champion trainer will be looking to his useful filly Heaps Of Fun to get back in the winning groove in the seventh race. Her chief rivals are likely to be Kilauea and Shatoosh.
Ferraris can score with his stayer Silken in the first leg of the jackpot.