Lad to close season in style
LUCKY LAD LOOKS HARD TO OPPOSE IN GRADE 2 SENOR SANTA STAKES ʂ Three-year-olds to put Derby form under the microscope.
While there might not be any Grade 1 races on tomorrow's card at Turffontein the Championships Finale looks to be a cracking meeting.
There are still seven features on the 10-race card, comprising four Grade 2 events, two Grade 3 races and the Listed TAB Gold Bowl over 3200m.
To add further interest for bettors is a Pick 6 carryover of R500,000 with a likely pool of R3 million. The entire Pick 6 is made up of feature races.
Heading up the card are the Grade 2 Jehan Malherbe Senor Santa Stakes over 1160m and the Grade 2 Colorado King Stakes over 2000m. Both races carry a stake of R500,000.
The trainer who has really come out guns blazing for this meeting is Sean Tarry, who has 14 runners carded. Included in that squad are some really top horses and he will no doubt be disappointed if he does not come away with a few good wins.
Possibly his best comes up in the Senor Santa Stakes where he sends out three runners in the 11-horse field – Lucky Lad, Swing Upon A Star and Winter Greeting. Interestingly it is the last mentioned who is the best weighted runner and she comes off a facile victory in the Non-Black Type KwaZulu-Natal Stakes for fillies and mares over 1000m at Hollywoodbets Greyville last month.
She does come in with just 53.5kg on her back but she does take a mighty jump in class. The average merit rating of her last start was 96 while the Senor Santa Stakes is 111.
There is little doubt that Lucky Lad is the runner to beat. Lucky Lad demonstrated he was ready to win again when a 1.25-length second behind Sandringham
Summit last time in the Grade 2 Hawaii Stakes over 1400m at Turffontein and is unbeaten in his two starts over the course and distance. Richard Fourie will take the ride.
Surjay, from the Brett Crawford yard, will make his debut on the Highveld, probably a stopover on his way to Durban for the winter. But, he is not in Joburg to enjoy the weather and he has raced against some of the best in the country. However, he is coming off a break and this five-yearold Vercingetorix gelding has not visited the winners' enclosure for 532 days.
Louie Mxothwa will be in Joburg to ride him.
Rulership ran well when third
in the Grade 1 Jonsson Workwear Computaform Sprint so one cannot right him off either though it is hard to see him giving away 2kg and a beating to Lucky Lad.
Only seven runners are carded to go to post for the Colorado King Stakes and this one looks wide open.
Puerto Manzano is the best weighted runner, but Mike de Kock has two decent runners in Aragosta, who ran an excellent third last time in the Grade 1 Premier's Champions Challenge over the same course and distance, and Safe Passage.
Muzi Yeni has won three times on Safe Passage and he is back on board the son of Silvano for this race.
Fourie rode Pure Predator in the Grade 1 TAB SA Derby on Champions Day and he was touched off by 0.25 lengths by classy Purple Pitcher.
That was a great effort, but the concern now is how strong that form will turn out to be as Taxhaven, who finished a threelength fifth in the Derby, then failed badly in a Maiden Plate during the week.
One could well be advised to put the field in this leg of the Pick 6.
Last season's Equus Champion Two-Year-Old Filly, Mrs Geriatrix, has raced twice in sprints on Turffontein's Standside track, winning both. She lost her unbeaten record at the course when finishing third in the Grade 1 Empress Club Stakes over 1600m last time out but reverts to 1160m - a distance over which she boasts a 100% record - in the Grade 2 Camellia Stakes, with a legitimate winning chance.
This is another very open race and Mrs Geriatrix is now 2kg worse off with De Kock-trained White Pearl for a head beating.
Then we have Time Fo Orchids, who has reeled off four successive victories back in sprints, Mrs Browning and Kiss Me Captain, in what should be another humdinger of a race.