Trainer Gavin Smith picked up another Eastern Cape Champion Trainer award last season and he is well set for a repeat performance.
He has a number of runners at Fairview on Tuesday when they race on the Polytrack with winning chances but his standout for the card should be is sprinter Cruise Control in Race 5, a Pinnacle Stakes over 1000m.
The Querari gelding has won eight of his 14 starts and is in as good a shape as he ever has been.
The four-year-old gelding was unlucky not to win his latest which was over 1200m on the turf where he made most of the running and was still clear until very late and was only grabbed just short of the post by rival in this race Evie’s First.
Cruise Control has always been at his very best over the 1000m and jockey Louis Mxothwa has won aboard him and replaces JP van der Merwe this time.
It is also worth noting that Cruise Control has won his last two starts over this course and distance.
Rival trainer Alan Greeff runs his four-year-old Cliff Top and this runner has beaten Cruise Control a couple of times but he has been disappointing of late.
Greeff, however, could win Race 6, a MR 68 Handicap, with Final Edition, who deserves a victory after some close defeats recently.
The Dynasty gelding was a wide-margin winner over 1900m on this surface in November and has been runner-up three times since then.
The drop in distance, this time to 1400m, should suit and Richard Fourie could have yet another winner.
It is hard to win races when drawn wide on the Polytrack but in Race it may pay to go each-way on the Smith trained Donny Tee.
The three-year-old gelding is improving and jockey Mxothwa could attempt start-to-finish tactics to negate the draw.
Clive Robinson
