Jockeys Athandiwe Mgudlwa and Kabelo Matsunyane jet into Cape Town this weekend and look set to leave their marks on the nine-race card at Hollywoodbets Durbanville on Monday 18 September by coming away with four winners between them.
Mgudlwa, also known as Ant, has shot to prominence recently by riding winners with regularity in KwaZulu-Natal for Garth Puller, Wendy Whitehead and, in particular, Gareth van Zyl.
The latter has assembled a strong team of up-and-coming horses to raid the Western Cape during the Summer Of Champions season and Mgudlwa should reap the rewards aboard two of Van Zyl’s runners on the day.
Stars In Heaven, a three-year-old son Danon Platina, showed enough promise in his two outings on the Polytrack as a two-year-old to be deemed good enough to take to Cape Town for the season and he justified that decision with an encouraging local debut at the country course over 1400m.
He ought to have come on since that outing five weeks ago, so with improvement expected of this Van Zyl-trained three-year-old, he should open his account by winning Race 2, returning to the course and distance of his last start.
That trainer-jockey combination has hopes for progressive Natyam who will probably need to produce a forward showing in Race 7 if he is to go on and fulfil those ambitions. This four-year-old gelding has been lightly raced (just four starts made) but is quickly going about making up for lost time, winning back-to-back Polytrack races at his last two starts, which have coincided with the addition of a tongue-tie to this son of Noble Tune.
His latest win over 1600m by an impressive five lengths earned Natyam the maximum eight-point penalty but even so, Van Zyl’s charge could prove to be ahead of the handicapper and better than currently rated. He is ideally stationed in gate No 1 with just 55kg on his back and ought to make Mgudlwa’s trip worthwhile.
Matsunyane has seen his star rise since teaming up with trainer Brett Crawford’s son and assistant, James, who runs his dad’s satellite yard on the Highveld. And it was with the Crawfords that the likeable lightweight rider shot to fame with his maiden Grade 1 success in South Africa’s premier race, the Hollywoodbets Durban July, aboard Crawford-trained Winchester Mansion.
In the absence of Brett’s stable jockey Louis Mxothwa, Matsunyane is likely to grab the opportunity afforded him by Crawford Snr with a closing race-to-race double, aboard consistent five-year-old Soft Falling Rain mare Metar in Race 8 and likely improver Veldskoen in Race 9.
The latter is of particular interest in a competitive 1250m sprint, especially after an encouraging comeback second over the course and distance on his return from a rest and gelding 17 days ago. This lightly raced son of Snitzel is open to any amount of progress but need not improve a great deal under 55.5kg to add a third career win to his tally from nine starts.
Clive Robinson
