Legal Force raring to go
LEGAL Force can make amends for last time’s unlucky defeat in the Rugby 5 Maiden at Kenilworth tomorrow when the diminutive Hilaria looks the danger.
Karl Neisius’s mount looked certain to win over this trip earlier in the month until Richard Fourie somehow conjured hidden depths from Garden Feature but it was earlier in the race where the hard luck stories originated and she was slowly away.
“That didn’t worry her but she then got a big bump in the middle of the race,” recalls Paddy Kruyer who is hoping that all goes well this time.
Hilaria
His charge yesterday opened evens favourite with Betting World who made the equally luckless Hilaria a 2-1 chance.
She was second three times on the trot, including defeats by a head and less than half a length, before being upped to 1 400m at Durbanville.
That didn’t work because she took too strong a hold early but Heavelon van der Hoven’s 4kg claim makes her a formidable proposition.
One to note each way is Philadelphia who got worked up in the pens at Durbanville but has a chance on her previous Kenilworth run. She is a huge price at 16-1.
Malachite Sunbird was considered good enough to run in the Listed race on Met day but she was found – after the race – to be suffering from the virus that affected several of the stable’s runners that day.
Fear Not
She reappears in race three and Justin Snaith comments: “I don’t say she is a good thing but she will run well.”
First run out of the maidens is normally the kiss of death but Fear Not won with such authority that she has opened 3-1 favourite for the Soccer GG Handicap even though the handicappers upped her 1.5kg for the way she broke her duck.
“She has improved since, she is above average and I think she has the pace to get over from her eight draw,” says a hopeful Adam Marcus.
Ashram (9-2) came from a long way back to win a maiden over 200m further but Silvane Spring appeals most at 5-1.
Gauteng was second to Ashram last time and so the Glen Kotzen horse’s running will be a pointer in the last for which Gauteng has opened 28-10 favourite. But 7-2 chance Natatela makes most appeal over the mile.
This is the filly on whom Andrew Fortune thought he had won on Valentine’s Day only to find he had been beaten a short head.
The pair tried again over 200m less a week later but could manage only sixth.
Bonfire Heart
It looked as if the trip was too short but Darryl Hodgson says: “It was more that the race came too soon although we might have been alright if it had been 1 400m and then 1 600m.”
The opener is tricky. The form book says Bonfire Heart but Victoria Lavelle’s debut run was boosted by the way Jet Air won on Saturday and the ground Tar Heel lost at the start also puts him in the picture. Maybe Bonfire Heart but don’t take less than 2-1.