Mosia will have it all to do at Vaal

The man to follow at Work Riders meetings is invariably Sam Mosia, who easily won the R50,000 2016-17 Challenge.

However, that might not be the case at Thursday’s meeting at the Vaal as 43-year-old Mosia seems to have a number of moderate mounts on the ninerace programme.

Mosia has seven booked rides for trainer Gary Alexander and the pick of the septet may be Banana Republic (first race) and Imoto in the seventh.

A daughter of Mullins Bay bred at Summerhill Stud, Banana Republic ran second on debut and a similar effort could cause the three-year-old to open her account.

Summer Spin and Juanita rate as the chief threats to the Alexander runner.

Imoto, also bred at Summerhill, is co-owned by jockey Andrew Fortune so he is likely to advise Mosia on how to ride the grey in the seventh race.

In his latest outing, Imoto ran third behind Throng and that form was given a boost on Tuesday when Sean Tarry’s charge won again at the Vaal.

A tough opponent will be Mike de Kock’s Mackbool. The three-year-old, placed three times in his five outings, is likely to start favourite.

The best way to bet on this 2,000m contest may be to couple Mackbool and Imoto in the swinger. Another De Kock runner, Sweaty Betty, will be fancied to leave the maiden ranks in the fifth race. The daughter of Seventh Rock has been placed in three of her four starts. The three-year-old is another good ride for Chama Mabaya whose only danger appears to be Steve Moffatt’s One Dollar Massage.

In the sixth race, Mosia renews his partnership with Chris Erasmus’s filly Until Dawn whom he rode into fourth place behind Maneater nine days ago.

This looks like a race in which punters need to include a number of runners in exotic bets — both Princess Tin Tin and Secret Island warrant inclusion in perms.