Raiders travel in hope

THE raiding trainers coming to Port Elizabeth for tomorrow’s running of this year’s R350 000 East Cape Derby over 2 400m on the Fairview turf track have left the locals guessing as to the strength of their runners.

The usual crew are in town – Justin Snaith with two runners, Brett Crawford and Andre Nel – but most of their representatives on the track are lightly raced and there is some guess work to be done.

Snaith

Sabbatical

Streetfighting Man.

Sabbatical’s last few runs have been in Port Elizabeth but up to 1600m. Last time out he raced over 2000m and got within 0.50 lengths of Kimberley Star.

Streetfighting Man only won his maiden in saddles and his last start but it was his first attempt at 1800m after having been confined to shorter distances in his previous eight starts.

He has only raced in the Western Cape so far.

Crawford has an interesting entrant in American Landing.

He has raced only four times and won his maiden over 2000m.

Last time he ran against his elders in a MR 75 Handicap over 2500m and finished third, beaten just 0.70 lengths.

Run Red has run six times for just one victory but Nel’s charge has yet to race beyond 1800m.

That will give the local trainers a lot of hope of keeping the Derby at home with Alan Greeff, Yvette Bremner and Sharon Kotzen all having some highly rated runners.