De Kock looks for No 10

Trainer Mike de Kock has won the Sansui Summer Cup a record nine times, but his last win in this R2-million Grade 1 race came in 2010 when Flirtation got up to beat stablemate Mother Russia.

In many of his previous wins in this race, De Kock has gone in with a strong hand of more than one runner but this year, he has just one string to his bow – the filly Orchid Island.

The four-year-old daughter of Silvano is owned by Wilgerbosdrift (Pty) Ltd with Mary Slack the nominee.

She has only run nine times for three wins but one of those victories was in the Grade 1 Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Classic over 1 800m at the course.

She is quite a small fi lly but has been priced up a 13-2 favourite for Saturday’s Summer Cup on the Turffontein Standside track.

Orchid Island has only had one warm-up run ahead but with champion jockey Anthony Delpech up, she has come in for solid support.

“She’s got a handy rating and I think she will be competitive,” was the comment made by assistant trainer Mathew de Kock on their website.

Second favourite at 7-1 is Crowd Pleaser, a very talented son of Captain Al, trained by Johan Janse van Vuuren.

While he acknowledges that Crowd Pleaser is talented and is well drawn at No 6, his trainer has one massive concern – the long Turffontein straight. “He likes to go to the front and prefers tracks like Greyville that has a short straight.

“At Turffontein, they have a big chance of running Crowd Pleaser down.” See Racing Express Extra