Good bets on the card
JOCKEY: LERENA HAS OUTSTANDING RIDES AT TURFFONTEIN AND SHOULD BE FOLLOWED
Laird-trained Green Haze looks another Pick 6 banker.
Racing takes place at Turffontein tomorrow and for once punters have the opportunity to come out on top. There appear to be a number of good bets on the nine-race card run on the Standside track and hopefully we can get most of them home. Much of that task has been left in the hands of former champion jockey Gavin Lerena, who is likely to riding a number of shortpriced favourites.
It starts in Race 2 where Lerena rides Orpheus for the Mike and Adam Azzie stable and this fouryear-old son of Western Winter will be trying 2400m for the first time. He led all the way when hanging on courageously to beat Gone With The Wind in an Assessment Plate over 2000m last time, probably a little more comfortably than the 0.40-length margin suggests.
This is another Assessment Plate and once again Orpheus is the best handicapped runner. The Azzies send out three of the six runners so they could very much dictate whatever place they may want but it is unlikely they will want them to go too hard up front.
The next best handicapped runner is Gift For The Gap who is trained by Tyrone Zackey but had this been a handicap he would have had to give Orpheus another 5kg.
What is interesting about this fellow is that jockey Nooresh Juglall is in town and he will be aboard this son of Master Of My Fate.
In Race 3 Lerena rides Sunshine Silk in a FM 86 Handicap over 2000m and she is another who looks hard to beat. She has raced against a lot better than she meets in this event and as this is her third run after a layoff she looks both a BiPot and Place Accumulator banker.
Race 6 is another Assessment Plate, this time over 1600m, as Green Haze will take some beating. He ran third behind Hawwaam in the Grade 2 Dingaans and takes a massive drop in class. Alec Laird has his yard in top form and Raymond Danielson is riding all the winners. Another banker in all bets.
In Race 8 Lerena rides Owlinthetree for Geoff Woodruff and this son of Dynasty should easily shed his maiden tag. He has been running over 1400m and looks as if he will relish this increase to 1800m.
Two runs back he was sent out a strong favourite in the “nowhip” race but proved no match for Hawwaam, who went on to win the Dingaans.
He was by no means disgraced wen beaten by Sean Tarry-trained Vontreo last time but over the extra 400m and is another banker in all bets.