Bold Fortune has really come into her own as a four-year-old and late last year added a Grade 2 and Grade 3 race to her record.
Stuart Pettigrew’s charge has raced 12 times for five wins and five places and looks set to add a Pinnacle Stakes for fillies and mares over 1800m at the Vaal on Tuesday to her record.
Late last year she achieved a quick double of feature races, firstly winning the Grade 3 Yellowwood Handicap for fillies and mares over 1800m and followed up with a victory in the Grade 2 Ipi Tombe Challenge over 1600m, both run on the Turffontein Standside track.
The Yellowwood win indicated this daughter of Flower had some class about her as she came back from a three-month break to pull off that 1.75-length triumph over Veld Flower.
It was not the strongest of Yellowwood Handicaps but to come through it with such authority was impressive.
The Ipi Tombe Challenge, though, was raced under weight-for-age terms, and this was a decent enough field, among them last season’s Champion Juvenile Filly Rain In Holland.
Diego de Gouveia has ridden her six times and has achieved four victories, which includes the two features, and a second place on the filly. He is back to ride her this time.
Bold Fortune comes into this Pinnacle Stakes in the Classic track as the best weighted runner but not by a long way. She only has a 1kg advantage over Seeham but the Sean Tarry-trained five-year-old has not been at her best of late.
In fairness, the Vercingetorix mare has consistently been taking on the colts in some top features and one has to go back to May last year to find the last time she raced against her own sex.
Nevertheless, she will need to improve to feature.
A bigger threat to Bold Fortune could come from three-year-old Eternity Ring. The Ideal World filly is proving to be ultra-consistent and has only once run out of the places in 11 starts.
That unplaced run was in the Grade 1 Thekwini Stakes at Greyville but it is that performance that points to Bold Fortune as the winner of Tuesday’s as it was behind Rain In Holland, who was beaten by Pettigrew’s charge in the Ipi Tombe Challenge.
She has also not yet tried 1800m but on breeding she should not have an issue.
Also in the race is her half-sister, Opera Glass, who does stay, and will carry just 50kg courtesy of a 4kg apprentice claimer.
Preview by Clive Robinson
