It could be thumbs up to trainer Johan Janse van Vuuren and jockey Keagan de Melo after the running of Race 5 on the Vaal Classic track on Tuesday.
Thumbs Up runs in a Conditions Plate for fillies and mares over 1450m and this race will prove an interesting test for the four-year-old daughter of Gimmethegreenlight.
She is not the best weighted runner in this line-up, and she will be trying this distance for only the second time. With only that one exception, Thumbs Up has been racing over distances from 1000m to 1200m and on breeding there should be no reason why she will be unable to see out the distance.
In fact, her lone run over 1450m, although on the Inside track at Turffontein, was against some very good fillies. It came up in October last year in the Grade 2 Joburg Spring Fillies And Mares Challenge where she finished a 2.10-length third behind Big Burn, who is slated to take on the colts in the Grade 1 Computaform Sprint.
In addition, the filly separating them in the Spring Challenge was Under Your Spell, who on Saturday finished a close-up second in the Grade 1 Princess Charlene Empress Club Stakes over 1600m at Turffontein.
Thumbs Up was only 0.50-lengths behind her and she was conceding 5.5kg to the runner-up and 7.5kg to the winner.
She could find it a lot more difficult on the Vaal Classic course because of the longer run-in but does look the class runner in this field.
The obvious danger has to be Miss Elegance. This Lucky Houdalakis-trained runner has raced three times over this distance or two seconds and a fourth. The fourth was behind Thumbs Up in the Joburg Spring Challenge but she is now 6kg better for a 1.20-length beating.
She is also the best handicapped runner based on merit ratings but this Master Of My Fate fillies has not won a race in 509 days.
Craig Zackey takes the ride.
Clive Robinson
