Hawwaam priced up as odds-on for Queen’s Plate

The final field for the R1.5-million L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate over 1600m at Kenilworth on Saturday will be finalised today but with only 10 nominations, no changes are really expected.

Justin Snaith has already declared his two runners – last year’s winner Do It Again and Crown Towers – as has Adam Marcus, who runs Green Point Stakes winner Vardy as well as Twist Of Fate. Richard Fourie will be riding Do It Again while Bernard Fayd’Herbe has been declared on Crown

Towers, who presumably will be Snaith’s idea of a pacemaker.

Craig Zackey will once again ride Vardy while Aldo Domeyer has been engaged for Twist Of Fate.

However, most of the attention will be on Mike de Kock’s two runners, Hawwaam and Soqrat. The former made a winning appearance in the Grade 2 Premier Trophy over 1800m, his first in the Cape and on a left-handed track, and can only get better from that run.

The bookmakers have taken no chances and have priced up Hawwaam at 19-20 with his half-brother, Rainbow Bridge, joint second favourite with Soqrat at 11-2.

But this race could be a lot trickier than the betting suggests. For a start, Soqrat, who is at his best over this distance, is a far better performer than when he was touched off 0.25 lengths by Do It Again last year as he proved with his win in the Victory Moon Stakes and his desperately unlucky runner-up spot behind Zillzaal, to whom he was conceding 7.5kg, in the Grade 1 Gauteng Chris Gerber Summer Cup over 2000m.

Do It Again ran poorly in the Green Point Stakes but that was just too bad to be true and is best ignored. There is also Vardy who Marcus predicted exactly one year ago would be better as a fouryear-old.

Current betting

19-20 Hawwaam

11-2 Rainbow Bridge, Soqrat 6-1 Do It Again, Vardy

15-1 One World

25-1 Twist Of Fate, Undercover Agent

55-1 Pack Leader

80-1 Crown Towers

Entries and weights for the R1.5-million L'Omarins Queen's Plate (Grade 1) over 1600m at Kenilworth

on Saturday.

10 CROWN TOWERS (S J Snaith) 60.0

4 DO IT AGAIN (S J Snaith) 60.0 1 HAWWAAM (M F de Kock) 60.0

7 ONE WORLD (V H Marshall) 60.0

3 PACK LEADER (G S Kotzen) 60.0

8 RAINBOW BRIDGE (A E Sands) 60.0

6 SOQRAT (M F de Kock) 60.0 2 TWIST OF FATE (A N Marcus) 60.0

9 UNDERCOVER AGENT (B Crawford) 60.0

5 VARDY (A N Marcus) 60.0