Malmoos on course to stay unbeaten
CONDITIONS: DE KOCK RUNNER HAS LANDED NO 2 DRAW FOR CONCORDE CUP
Seeking The Stars looks hard to beat in Ready To Run Stakes.
Mike de Kock has managed to split two of his star threeyear-olds and will be hoping they can both retain their unbeaten status. He nominated both Mount Pleasant and Malmoos for the Grade 2 WSB Dingaans over 1600 mat Turffontein on Saturday 28 November.
Fortunately, with no further cases of African Horse Sickness on the Highveld, the door was finally open for horses to travel from Gauteng, and that enabled De Kock to run Malmoos in tomorrow’s Grade 2 Avontuur Estate Concorde Cup over 1600 mat Kenilworth.
This race has often been seen as a pointer to the Grade 1 Cape Guineas which will be run next month.
In Malmoos, De Kock has a runner quite capable of completing a three-year-old feature double in the Cape.
This will undoubtedly be a stern test for Malmoos. While the son of Captain Al has won all three of his starts with ease, he will be
facing a strong challenge from the home contingent. In fact, he is only 0.5kg better weighted than some of his opposition and they did not have to travel all the way from Joburg.
Malmoos does have the advantage of No 1 draw and apprentice Luke Ferraris knows him well, having ridden the colt in all three of his starts.
The local challenge is headed up by Linebacker and Rascallion. Both have shown good form but were well beaten by Seeking The Stars in the Grade 3 Cape Classic last time.
One will be able to evaluate the validity of that form as Seeking The Stars is running in Race 5, the CTS Ready To Run Stakes (Non-Black Type), over 1400m. Along with Malmoos, he looks to
be a banker on the card as he looks very hard to oppose in the R1.25million race.
Vaughan Marshall’s charge is at least 3kg better handicapped than any of his opposition and is beautifully drawn at No 3.
This son of Vercingetorix is unbeaten since fitted with blinkers and could be a runner Marshall will be aiming at winning another Cape Guineas for the trainer.
The day’s supporting Grade 2 feature is the CTS Sales Cape Merchants over 1200m Race 7 and is dominated by Justin Snaithtrained runners who are likely to fight out the finish. With just 52kg to carry, the advantage must be with last season’s Cape champion two-year-old Erik The Red, who is preferred to last-start winner Rio Querari.