3-year-olds to show elders no respect

A mouth-watering Pinnacle Stakes over 1200m is the topliner on the programme at Kenilworth tomorrow and the race will be watched with interest.

Nine of the older runners, including best-weighted Search Party and Tevez, are returning from layoffs and it might pay to side with fitter three-year-olds in Al Mariachi and Bold Respect.

They – and Search Party – hail from the Brett Crawford stable and all three have immense ability.

Al Mariachi ran third behind Sand And Sea in the Gold Medallion over 1200m at Scottsville in May

He then followed that good run with wins in two Greyville feature sprints and a third in a Durbanville Progress Plate restricted to three-year-olds.

Although 4kg under sufferance with the top two horses, he still has huge scope for improvement and might well still be ahead of the handicappers.

Bold Respect has run only four times, notching up two wins and two places. He finished fourth, a long neck behind Al Mariachi in that three-year-old Progress Plate at Durbanville having tried to make all the running after a slow start.

He, too, could be better than his rating.

Jockey bookings hint that the stable might be leaning towards Bold Respect, but don’t leave either of his stablemates out of calculations.

Search Party ran second to Bull Valley in both the Tsogo Sun and the Mercury Sprint last season – exceptional form.

He is likely to be targeting the Cape Flying Championship in January, though, and Crawford will not be too keen on bringing him to hand too quickly.

The other three-year-old in the field is Joey Ramsden-trained Ancestry, who ran a good second to Eyes Wide Open in the Premier’s Champion Stakes over 1600m at Greyville last time out.

He would probably prefer further as he gets fitter, but should be running on nicely at the end in this race and could place.