The curtain may have come down on Cape Racing’s spectacular Summer Of Champions season after last month’s Cape Derby meeting but the quality of racing and competition on the track remains, with the nine-race card at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Saturday 9 March being a case in point.
While the meeting is devoid of feature races and includes four Maiden Plates, the races are competitive throughout so there should be value aplenty for bettors to cash in on,
One of the standout bets on the card is World Of Pleasure in Race 1 and Vaughan Marshall’s charge should get favourite backers off to a winning and profitable start under Bernard Fayd’Herbe, who has ridden this son of One World in both starts.
He finished second on debut over 1000m and was slightly disappointing – although far from disgraced – when only third over 1100m four weeks ago. However, the step up to 1400m in the opener is expected to unlock tons of improvement from this two-year-old colt likely to start a short-priced favourite.
Trainer Brett Crawford saddles a strong coupling in Race 3 and his runners, Lindbergh and Zil Moris, are worth including in Swinger and Exacta bets. Both last-start winners are favourably treated by the conditions of the 1400m Newlands Stakes and are weighted to be competitive. Louie Mxothwa takes over the reins from Gareth Wright aboard Lindbergh, while Richard Fourie will again be aboard Zil Moris, having steered him to a course-and-distance victory on 31 January.
Fourie retains the ride on Crawford-trained Mont Loisir in Race 6 after finishing second on this three-year-old gelding, who was a beaten odds-on favourite last month on his reappearance after an 18-week absence.
This well-bred son of Vercingetorix would have come on appreciably with the benefit of that comeback outing and should, despite his No 12 starting stall, improve to go one better.
As the retained rider to prominent owner-breeder Lady Laidlaw and her Khaya Stables, Craig Zackey is likely to be in the irons on the third Crawford-trained winner on the day. He had a 100% record on Pomodoro’s Jet – after consecutive 1600m in November and December – but suffered defeat for the first time in three starts aboard the lightly raced five-year-old gelding who was heavily backed when only finishing fourth over 1400m last month.
Pomodoro’s Jet, a son of former Durban July winner Pomodoro, is undoubtedly more effective over 1600m so the return to that trip in Race 8 will be right up his alley.
Crawford’s charge has won three of his four outings over this distance, finishing second in the other, and should repay his supporters by bouncing back to winning ways under Zackey.
Elsewhere on the card, jockey Corne Orffer has two rides worth including in a Double or TAB All-To-Come bet. He rides Tequila Sky (Race 4) and Go Like Flo (Race 7), both of whom finished second under Fourie last time out.
Clive Robinson
