To stay or not to stay, that is the question

There is a well-founded belief that Derby winners do not always have to stay 2400m, they just have to be substantially better than their rivals.

We have seen this over the years with horses such as Legal Eagle, who won the Grade 1 SA Derby easily in the wet, but later overall was at his best over 1600m, a distance over which he won 10 successive starts, while he only managed one win up to 2000m later in his career. That could well have been in Alan Greeff’s mind when he decided to run Fairy Knight in the Listed TAB East Coast Derby over 2400m on the turf at Fairview today.

The son of Global View, although having won six of his 12 start, has not raced further than 1600m and on breeding it is questionable if he will see out the trip.

But he is the class horse of the race, he is unbeaten since having been gelded and he will have Richard Fourie in the irons.

This race has been won by some decent horses, probably none better than Lizard’s Desire who Mike de Kock took to Dubai and came literally, within a hair’s breadth of winning the then world’s richest race, the Dubai World Cup.

This year, sadly, only eight runners are carded to go to post and there are no visiting horses.

Nevertheless, if one looks beyond Fairy Knight, it is highly competitive. Half the field is made up of fillies and Greeff also has Joy And Peace in the field who is proven over 2000m and could well enjoy the move up to 2400m. Kendall Minnie has picked up the ride.

Also run on the day is the Listed Dahlia Plate for Juveniles over 1200m and trainer Gavin Smith could have the upper hand in this particular event as he saddles four decent runners.

King dundee, with Craig Zackey up, could be the best of the trio. This son of The United States impressed when beating winners on debut and showed signs of inexperience when defeated by unbeaten Splice the main brace last timeout.

Third time out he should be ready for his best performance.

Stable companions Family Law, Silvonian and Happy Holly will all have their supporters too.

Interestingly, Greef has opted for Havana Grey to represent the yard so one has to take notice.

This Heavenly Blue filly was touched off on debut and won her second start. Both runs were on the Polytrack and she is open to improvement with Fourie retaining the ride.