Newlands threat to African Night Sky
AFRICAN Night Sky, winner of the Winter Guineas and Winter Classic, heads a field of nine for the Grade 3 R250 000 Highlands Stud Winter Derby over 2 400m at Kenilworth on Saturday and seems sure to start favourite to become the first horse to win all three legs of the Winter Series since the mighty Pocket Power in 2006.
However, he may not have things all his own way because Newlands receives 1kg, is merit-rated two points better and Anton Marcus is flying in to ride him.
Newlands has yet to race beyond 2 000m but his pedigree suggests he will get the trip and trainer Joey Ramsden has a good record, winning three of the last 14 runnings.
Furthermore favourites do not have a good record and the only one successful in the last nine seasons was the Ramsden-trained Liquid Mercury two years ago.
Those who headed the market but met their Waterloo in this race include the subsequent Sun Met winner Whisky Baron who started at 13-10 12 months ago after finishing second to Marinaresco in both the Winter Guineas and the Winter Classic.
African Night Sky also has to contend with Our Mate Art who was only beaten threequarters of a length in the Winter Classic and 1.25 lengths in the Winter Guineas.
Loadshedder, third in both races, also throws down the gauntlet. The remaining five runners have a lot to do on ratings and longshots do not often come up in this race – Cree Lodge at 25-1 in 2010 being a rare exception.
A notable absentee is the East Cape Derby winner Dorset Noble.
If African Night Sky does win he will collect a R250 000 bonus for winning all three legs. The draw is not expected to be of any significance.
Final field and draws for the Highlands Stud Winter Derby (Grade 3) over 2 400m at Kenilworth on Saturday.
1 - 6 AFRICAN NIGHT SKY (S J Snaith) B Fayd’Herbe 60.0 - 97 2 - 9 NEWLANDS (J Ramsden) A Marcus 59.0 - 99 3-3 OUR MATE ART (C L Bass Robinson) A Domeyer 59.0 - 93 4-7 LOAD SHEDDER (W A Nel) G van Niekerk 59.0 - 84 5-1 OLLIVANDER (C L Bass Robinson) M Byleveld 59.0 - 80 6-2 MANGROVE (G W Ennion) R Fourie 59.0 - 76 7 - 8 PADDINGTON (J Ramsden) D Dillon 59.0 - 75 8 - 5 SOARING PAST (C/R Burger/van Reenen) C Bantam 59.0 - 73 9 - 4 DESERT WISDOM (C L Bass-Robinson) A Andrews 59.0 - 65 Same Trainer: (2,7) (3,5,9) - Phumelela