Let Champenois fill your glass
DENNIS Drier has had no luck in the defence of his KZN Trainer’s Championship with his runners seemingly stuck in second place. He had a run of three consecutive runners-up at Scottsville on Sunday but hopefully Champenois can snap that trend in the Track & Ball Gaming Maiden at the same venue today.
The daughter of Visionaire has contributed to Drier’s run of seconds, having finished second best in both outings, but has a strong chance of going one better in spite of facing a competitive line-up.
She was running on strongly in both starts and by now the penny should have dropped.
She will also be better suited to the longer Scottsville home straight.
Dinner Date
Garth Puller had a winner on Sunday with Saint Marco, lamenting the fact that the handicappers were quick to raise but slow to drop when it came to merit ratings, but he will have no gripes here as Dinner Date lines up in this maiden and who could prove the biggest, but not the only, threat to Champenois.
The daughter of Russian Sage has finished close-up in two recent sprints, the last one when favourite, but her pedigree suggests that a ‘mile’ and further would be more to her liking.
She gets to test that theory here but even 1 400m may prove a touch on the sharp side.
Professor Brian suffered his first defeat as a gelding in the Gr2 Post Merchants after running up a string of five straight victories.
It was a given that his winning streak would come to an end at some stage but he is back in handicap company for the Racing.It’s a Rush Handicap and can be back in business.
He has some excellent form over the Kenilworth 1 200m and has carried 59 kg to victory so today’s race should hold no fears for Joey Ramsden’s gelding.
Donny G
Donny G showed pace for Sean Tarry in the Post Merchants before compounding over the last furlong but prior to that was close-up to the speedy Riverine in a Pinnacle Stakes event.
It’s been a year since his last win and in that time has only dropped four points in the handicap which gives some substance to Puller’s gripes.
Duncan Howells has the KZN Trainer’s Championship sewn up in all but name being nine winners ahead of second-placed Drier with three meetings to go. He sends out Amazon King who can follow up on his recent victory.
The gelding was two lengths back to Professor Brian three runs back and was decidedly unlucky next time out when the jockeys took it upon themselves to stay wide of the running rail which upset many a planned tactic.
Amazon King
That was remedied at his next outing with a sustained finish to beat Kingston Boy.
With stable jockey Keagan de Melo having cracked his first century of winners in a season and riding with confidence, Amazon King is not without a chance.
Texas Sky, second to recent Gr2 Golden Horseshoe runner-up Ancestry, can pull one back for Drier in the White Horse Function Room Maiden but the blinkered Toltec is way better than his last showing while Tommy Grand will be out to give Nathan Kotzen, long-time assistant to Mike de Kock, his first winner as a fully-fledged trainer and another second for Drier is not beyond the realms of possibility.