Equus champions lined up for Dingaans, Fillies Mile
CHANGE: HISTORIC RACES MOVED FORWARD FROM TRADITIONAL DATE National Park and Ronnie’s Candy among entries.
Soqrat and Return Flight – the 2018 Equus Champion Two-Year-old Colt and Filly respectively – are among entries for the Dingaans and the Fillies Mile to be run at Turffontein on the Standside track on 24 November.
The Grade 2 Dingaans is one of the country’s most historic and prestigious contests and an indicator of strengths and weaknesses in the three-year-old crop.
A stand-out nominee is trainer Yvette Bremner’s Port Elizabeth raider National Park, a facile, surprise winner of the recent Graham Beck Stakes over 1400m.
Also in the reckoning is Chumichuri Run, second in that Grade 3 race but who wields a merit rating of 116, the highest among the 22 entrants for the Dingaans.
Ace trainers Mike de Kock and Sean Tarry both have three horses up for the 1600m showdown.
The former goes with Soqrat, who has a wide early draw of 16 out of 20; Hawwaam (drawn 8), an impressive winner of the “nowhip” race on Charity Mile day, and Atyaab (5), an Australianbred colt who has won once.
Tarry has put forward Bien Venue (6); In Cahoots (17), and Chimichuri Run (13), who took a 5.75-length trouncing from National Park in the Graham Beck but who has two Grade 3 scalps.
The Fillies Mile, a 1600m Grade 3 companion race to the Dingaans with different conditions, also has stellar names in contention.
Trainer St John Gray’s doughty galloper Ronnie’s Candy is the highest-rated entry, with a MR of 107 thanks to an emphatic victory in the Princess Charlene Starling Stakes at the beginning of November. Before that, the daughter of King Of Kings took out the SA Fillies Nursery as a maiden.
Tarry’s Return Flight has won three out of five and is rated 106, largely due to her juvenile Grade 1 triumph in the Thekwini Stakes at Greyville on Gold Cup Day.
Celtic Sea, another Tarry entrant, is on 104 after winning the Grade 2 Golden Slipper.
The Dingaans and Fillies Mile have been moved a week forward from their traditional slot on Summer Cup Day at the beginning of December. The fixtures were deemed to be too close to the Cape Guineas and the Cape Fillies Guineas and the shuffle has given trainers a chance to contest both the Johannesburg and Cape Town events.
The two features will be the only races run on the Standside track on the night, with the balance of the card scheduled for the Inside turf.