Royal Champion to march in
DEAN Kannemeyer steps out his three-year-old Western Winter colt Soldier's Code at Greyville today and he is likely to start favourite as he did on debut over the same course and distance back at the beginning of August.
Kannemeyer is operating a satellite yard at Summerveld from which he will also campaign in some of the races in the coming Gauteng season and, if he continues the good form he showed during Champions Season, he could have a successful couple of months ahead of him.
In the colt's debut run where he was backed in from 18-10 to 1610, he raced green and was hanging in and after racing up in fourth place he lacked the extra to get in touch with the leaders and finished six lengths fifth.
He will obviously have learned something from that run and that experience could see him run a much better race in a field that is not all that strong but does include a couple of runners with form over the course and distance.
One of those is the five-year-old King Of Kings gelding Royal Champion from the Jeff Freedman stable and one might say that at his age he should have shed his maiden by now. In his 14 runs he has fished in the money 10 times and he could be his own worst enemy being a difficult character to handle.
However, Sean Cormack has stuck with him for the third time having taken him into third place in his last two starts and last time going down by less than two lengths.
If anyone is going to get the gelding into the winner's enclosure then Cormack will and now that this talented rider has really got to know him, we could expect Royal Champion to make a bold and possibly a winning effort.
Duncan Howells runs the four-year-old Bezrin gelding Guilty As Charged that appears to have clicked with his new pilot Muzi Yeni to run second in his last two starts over the 'mile' at Scottsville.
The gelding looks ready to challenge for the top spot today and while he has not run on the poly since March, he did manage to finish second to Avaricious then and in spite of his wide draw today he has to be respected.
Also not to be ignored is the four-year-old Rebel King gelding Relish from the Weiho Marwing stable. His last four races have been on the poly but he has yet to be tried beyond the 1 200m trip which is a factor that will need to be considered.
Looking at the balance of the card there could be a close twohorse battle for honours in the first leg of the Jackpot where the Mike de Kock-trained Judpot filly Alessia meets the Australianbred High Chaparral filly Princess Varunya from the Kom Naidoo stable. They both have top class form and on their runs over the course and distance there does not seem to be much between them.
Alessia cast a shoe and hung in before finishing a neck second to Lady Lago in her first run on the poly which was an impressive performance. If having a trouble free run today she has a definite winning chance.
Princess Varunya has had three runs on the poly, the two most recent over the mile and has finished second in all three races. Last time she over-raced and took a bump and after leading all the way was just touched off by Way Out Front.
This race could produce a very exciting finish and possibly the highlight of the meeting.