Jocks rise to Challenge
TRICKY: COMPETITIVE RACING AT INTERNATIONAL JOCKEYS’ CHALLENGE
No battle as to who will win Monaco Maiden Million Sprint.
Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone. That line from the Joni Mitchell song Big Yellow Taxi epitomises the excitement about the return of the World Sports Betting International Jockeys’ Challenge at Turffontein tomorrow. The event disappeared from the calendar last year but thankfully, owing to the perseverance of Racing Association CEO Larry Wainstein, South African jockeys will be able to face a team of six international jockeys on home turf.
The SA team is led by Muzi Yeni with Gavin Lerena, Warren Kennedy, Greg Cheyne, Callan Murray and S’manga Khumalo. Wayne Agrella is the reserve.
The international squad is captained by Rab Havlin of Scotland and he is joined by Paul Hanagan, Martin Dwyer, Franny Norton and Hayley Turner from England and Italian Andrea Atzeni.
The four legs of the Challenge, supported by Sun International and Air Mauritius, are from races 5 to 8 and make up the Jackpot. As expected, the four races are highly competitive and the Jackpot looks the bet to take.
There are no obvious bankers in the Jackpot but for those who want to keep the cost down and the percentage up, Race 8 looks the best place to cut back. The two runners with most potential are Hellofaride and At Hand. Both have been sparingly raced and have loads of room for improvement.
Hellofaride has only raced twice, running on strongly on debut over 1200m, to finish a 2.75-length third behind Leopold. He came out again over 1600m and ran out a very easy winner. He looks worth following, especially as the Mike de Kock stable is in deadly form. Yeni has the ride.
Turner is aboard At Hand for St John Gray and this Call To Combat colt has raced six times for a win and three places.
They should fight it out and it is worth taking Swingers and Exactas with the pair.
One could possibly also go light in Race 6 where Ashley Fortune saddles three-year-old Seven Seas. This filly has raced four times for one win and two places and it looks another good ride for Yeni.
“She is honest and I think she has a good chance,” said Fortune yesterday. “But it is a very difficult card.”
She is drawn No 9 which is not a great place to be over 1400m at this course and the problem is once you look beyond Seven Seas, almost anything can win it.
There are two other interesting features on the card – the running of the Monaco Million Maiden Sprint over 1160m and the first juvenile races of the season.
The R1-million maiden looks at the mercy of De Kock-trained Battleoftrafalgar who looks far better than his opposition. On debut he ran second to Frosted Gold in the Grade 2 SA Nursery and then placed behind De La Cruz and Invidia in his next two. He has not raced for 160 days but De Kock does not bring them back unfit.
The juveniles kick off in Race 1 and the word is that Paul Petertrained Miracle Fight, a half-sister to Mythical Bolt, will be hard to beat.