All in for Wine Festival
PUNTERS can drink to Wine Festival in the 1 400m maiden at Kenilworth today. That might sound corny but the Joey Ramsden-trained filly has the form to win race three. She has had two good runs, she will get the trip and she has a good draw.
She was 12-10 favourite (after opening at slightly longer odds) with World Sports Betting yesterday and that is a fair assessment of her chance.
Evie’s Light (9-2) steps up to 1 400m for the first time after a succession of good runs and looks an obvious danger. Indeed she is a bit unlucky not to have won by this stage.
Daring Miss
Third favourite at 5-1 is Daring Miss but, although she has finished second in two of her last three starts, she has already raced 15 times without success.
Captain Ram ran as if he didn’t quite get the trip when tried over 1 400m two months ago – he led over a furlong out only to be caught on the line – but it is significant that the in-form Brett Crawford tries again in the Racing Association Maiden (race two).
Corne Orffer’s mount has hardened from 16-10 to 12-10 which looks plenty short enough but he gets the vote now that The Silva Fox has gone down with pharyngitis.
Bernie (4-1) and Tripple Explosion (2-1) look best of the remainder.
The opening maiden is a tricky contest with the bookies favouring a number of the first-timers, notably Greg Cheyne’s mount Greenstreettractor, one of three Crawford runners. However not many horses win first time out in Cape Town and Streetfighting Man gets a tentative vote at 8-1. Brandon May’s mount has raced just once – in April when he started Tote favourite but lost ground at the start.
That experience should stand him in good stead in this company and the Snaith stable is in form.
Captain Falcon
Captain Falcon (11-2) has not dissimilar credentials and the same applies to 10-1 chance One For One who moved well first time while Counting Stars (5-1) is far better than last time’s run would suggest.
Paul Reeves, 50 yesterday, has a chance of a belated birthday present from Scorpion Queen in race four although this is an event to sidestep with nothing looking good enough.
The hard-working Reeves also has prospects with Saint Donan -already nibbled at and now 9-2 - in the Place Your Bets Handicap (race seven) but the vote goes to 3-1 second favourite Western Storm who drops back a furlong and races off the same mark as on his good run of four weeks ago.