Pining for the moon

Jaeger Moon has been a revelation for the Gavin Smith yard and will be looking for his fifth successive victory at Fairview today.

The son of Capetown Noir lines up in Race 5, a MR 94 Handicap over 1600m on the Polytrack and will once again be ridden by Marco van Rensburg.

Jaeger Moon has only raced seven times and other than his debut run in which he finished unplaced (it was a two-year-old feature which was won by Global Drummer), the three-year-old colt has not been out of the first four.

He really came into his own when pushed up in distance and although he won his maiden over 1600m, his last three wins have been over 2000m. He showed a lot of guts last time when hanging on grimly to keep Green Dragon at bay, and the pair will meet again on this occasion.

Green Dragon came out and won her next start and received a penalty for that win, but the Alan Greeff-trained mare will be 0.5kg better off this time. The issue with the five-year-old daughter of Gimmethegreenlight is you have to go back to July 2019 to find the last time she placed over 1600m or less and since then, her best form has been over further.

That should still give Jaeger Moon the edge, but he could end up getting stymied by Grant Paddock-trained Norfolk Pine.

The five-year-old Fort Wood gelding has run seven times since joining Paddock from Brett Crawford’s Western Cape yard and has notched up four wins, three of them over 1600m.

Although the pair have not met, they have been contesting races of similar strength and the distance could favour Norfolk Pine.

Louis Mxothwa takes the ride for the first time.