Bass-Robinson makes her bid

CANDICE BASS-ROBINSON will run 40% of the field in Saturday’s Highlands Stud Winter Derby in a bid to extend her stable’s historically high success rate in the Kenilworth Grade 3. Her father Mike won the race five times in 16 years.

But it is the Justin Snaith-trained Doublemint who looks most likely to start favourite.

The Politician winner has to concede a kilo all round but he had five of Saturday’s ten runners behind when third to the unbeaten Rainbow Bridge and Durban July candidate Rocket Countdown in last month’s Winter Classic.

Van Niekerk

Grant van Niekerk takes over from Callan Murray.

Bernard Fayd’Herbe, bidding for his fourth Winter Derby win, rides Ancestry for Joey Ramsden who has decided against pitting the high class filly Fresnaye against male opponents and instead runs her in the Winter Oaks.

Ramsden has pretty much made the Langerman his own and runs four in his attempt to win the race for the tenth time in 18 seasons but, on paper at any rate, the one that stands out in the 1 500m test is the unbeaten One World, representing Vaughan Marshall and M.J. Byleveld who were successful 12 months ago with the subsequent Cape Guineas winner Tap O’Noth. In the Irridescence Paul Reeves takes on the might of the Bass-Robinson two-year-old filly powerhouse with highly regarded runaway debut winner Helen’s Ideal (Donovan Dillon).