Nordic Breeze can bring it home
NORDIC BREEZE, only fourth over 1 000m last time, should be much more at home over the extra furlong of the Protea Toyota Bellville Conditions Plate at Kenilworth tomorrow and looks value at 3-1.
Her good run over this trip in the Champagne suggests she should be able to confirm the placings with 33-10 shot Goodtime Gal despite Anton Marcus taking over from an (admittedly very useful) apprentice. The Mike Robinsontrained mare has to give weight all round including 2kg to the selection and is at her best over further.
Made In Hollywood has already been nibbled at from 3-1 to 28-10 favourite with World Sports Betting and it easy to see why Joey Ramsden described the race as “too good to miss” despite the vaccination cloud hanging over the stable. On merit ratings she has 3kg in hand over 16-1 outsider Midnight Moonlight and a minimum of 5.5kg over everything else. And it’s not just the ratings. In the Champagne she was only three-quarters of a length behind Goodtime Gal and two lengths off Nordic Breeze. She meets them on terms 8.5kg and 6.5kg better. In normal circumstances she would be odds-on.
But will she be able to run up to her best? Ramsden wouldn’t be running her unless he thought she could but the aftereffects of those vaccinations has kept all but one of the rest of the stable in their boxes. For punters that should be a tip in itself.
Sovereign Spirit
The bookmakers seem to have heard what they believe are the right vibes about Sovereign Spirit (by Dynasty out of the Woolavington winner Viva Maria) in the first and accordingly WSB opened her favourite at 2-1.
The Candice Bass-Robinson runner gets a tentative vote despite being drawn on the slower side of the course. So too is Marcus’s mount Silver Plains who has already been supported from 6-1 to 9-2.
“He is a very nice horse but the race comes a little bit too soon for my liking,“says Eric Sands. “He is too big for Durbanville and this is my last opportunity to run him at Kenilworth for some weeks.”
Levis Kuse won on three of his five rides at Kenilworth last season and accordingly 15-10 favourite Without Limits gets the nod in the Carl Greaves Brokers Work Riders’ Maiden. The Brett Crawford newcomer Engage And Beware (Marcus) has been backed from 7-2 to 22-10 favourite for the St Dalfour Maiden but the experience of Richard Fourie’s mount Trip To The Sky may swing the balance. This one was slowly away when over seven lengths third to the highly rated Pleasedtomeetyou.
Fourie and Justin Snaith should also win the next with odds-on shot Magnificent Seven while stable companion The Boston Rose has proved profitable for this column and can go in again in the Infiniti Insurance Handicap.