Legal Eagle faces real test
LEGAL EAGLE can extend his amazing unbeaten mile run into double figures in the Green Point Stakes at Kenilworth tomorrow when he has Rainbow Bridge and Undercover Agent to beat.
His narrow win over Edict Of Nantes in this race last season is still fresh in the memory, not least because it came just three days before the proverbial hit the Steinhoff fan and blew one of the world’s great racing empires to pieces.
Since then the dual Horse of the Year has changed hands but not stables and won both a third Queen’s Plate and a third Horse Chestnut.
The turn of foot he showed to win a sprint on his return three weeks ago suggests that Sean Tarry has him as good as ever.
Undercover Agent also won a sprint on his reappearance -Brett Crawford: “Good horses do that, he is not a hard horse to prepare and he is a perfect athlete. This is his trip and he is still on the way up.”
So is Rainbow Bridge who has been heavily supported to stretch his unbeaten record (from 1 200 – 1 800m) to six despite getting stirred up on every occasion except the first.
You would expect this to have a negative effect on his performance but it hasn’t, not so far at least.
Could it be that all his jig-jogging around the parade ring creates adrenaline that kicks in, quite legally, when he gets to the business end of a race?
Handicappers’ ratings suggest that he still has over four lengths to find with Legal Eagle while Undercover Agent is only a length and a half behind the Tarry star.
It could be a lot closer than that between the big three but Do It Again is surely out of the reckoning after five months off.
Anton Marcus may also win the Southern Cross Stakes on Nous Voila who really turned on the style when put back up the straight in a progress plate three weeks ago.
This filly has been backed from 14-1 to 5-2 joint favourite with some bookmakers, punters almost certainly influenced by the jockey who is in unbelievable form.
However Candice Bass-Robinson has the first three in the betting and her views on their chances are informative: “Magical Wonderland (best price 5-2) has come on quite a bit since the Laisserfaire for which she had a terrible prep, 64.5 kg and stitches in her knee but I needed to give her a race regardless. She has been working well and looks great. My only reservation is that this is her second run back.
“Freedom Charter (second in the Laisserfaire and best price 13-2) is also doing well but this is just a touch on the sharp side. She is not without a chance if they go quick enough.
“I wouldn’t discount Nous Voila either although it will be difficult for her to beat a filly like Magical Wonderland.”
Strathdon is favourite to repeat last year’s win in the Cape Summer Stayers but he has gone up quite sharply in the weights since and Benjan at 5-1 makes more appeal.
The TAB Telebet fillies pinnacle (race two) is Grade 1 class and it seems folly to look beyond Snowdance even though she has been off since July day. IT WAS rough going for punters this weekend but for those who landed the exotics, or even a percentage of it, will have added substantially to their wallets. It could be more of the same at Greyville tonight where they face another tricky poly meeting.
The formidable combination of Johan Janse van Vuuren and Anton Marcus have teamed up again this weekend. Their main attack comes on Sunday but their only runner this evening should get their ball rolling with Ottawa in the card opener.
She is rated way better than her field and has useful Highveld form. She was run out of late at her last start over the Turffontein short-cut, an indication that she should take to the synthetic surface and is likely to start at odds of 13-20 in the current market.
Opposition could come from Redeem The Gold who found some market support on debut but raced green in the soft ground.
She should make big improvement and may be a threat, while Captain’s Love has improved at recent outings and was not far back in a work riders’ plate last run.
Dennis Drier is having a better run in the Cape after last year’s disappointing raid where most of his string failed to acclimatise, but assistant Stuart Ferrie is keeping the home fires burning with Wealthy winning his second Chapter Challenge at Scottsville on Sunday. Ferrie saddles The Master in the second. The gelding has something of a reputation already in spite of only a single outing where he was run out of it inside the last 100m.
He should come on with the experience but it is a competitive maiden with the likes of Mokoko, Rocket Fire and Pantsula all likely to have their supporters.
A measure of Marcus’s dominance when it comes to picking and choosing rides is that his current winning strike rate is nearly 32% and he is only four winners behind current national log leader Muzi Yeni who has had 400 more rides.
After Ottawa and The Master, he will be aboard another likely favourite in the Brett Crawford-trained Elusive Diva. The filly has been costly to follow, a beaten favourite at all three of her starts on the poly with Marcus up, but given her current front-running tactics she drops to what could possibly be her optimum trip of 1400m.
Gareth van Zyl is having a smart run and Sweet Preserve is back on her favourite surface when she runs in the fifth. Her three best efforts have come on the poly and she was closing fast on Little Audrey last time out. Of the opposition, La Duchesse has spotty form but is capable and Paul Gadsby has declared blinkers after her performance when turning it up at the business end of her race. Counter Fate showed improvement last run in her second outing in blinkers and can do better this extended trip.
An interesting runner is Petra in the Independent Minds Pinnacle Plate. Father and son combination of Robbie and Shannon Hill thought enough of their filly to pit her against some of the best around last season after finishing second to Inverroche in the Strelitzia Stakes. Things didn’t work out and she was rested after finishing down the field in Gr2 The Debutante.
She trialled well in her first run back on a racecourse but takes on a smart field of older fillies including Kateecador and Victory Trip who may have the edge when it comes to racing fitness. In the mix is top weight Val-A-Ree but she faces a mammoth task as a three-year-old under 61kg in spite of being the best weighted filly in the race.