Cape Racing’s Winter Series resumes at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Sunday 5 May with a nine-race card that includes a pair of Grade 3 events and a Listed race.
Unsurprisingly, Leg 1 winners Rascallion and Princess Izzy line up in Leg 2 bidding to add to their respective Grade 3 Variety Club Mile and 1400m Listed Sweet Chestnut Stakes successes.
The former, who bounced back to his best with blinkers refitted in the Cape Met over 2000m, confirmed the improvement of that Grade 1 second by winning Leg 1 of the Winter Series under jockey Morne Winnaar – a late replacement for big-race rider Bernard Fayd’Herbe who had tweaked his neck in an earlier riding incident.
The win was a first Graded success for the underrated 43-year-old rider whose services trainer Vaughan Marshall retains aboard well-performed Rascallion who snapped a long winless spell that lasted 15 months, in the Grade 3 Legal Eagle Stakes over 1800m.
This six-year-old Vercingeorix gelding beat re-opposing rivals Future Prince, Greeting My Master, Pacaya and Navy Strength over 1600m in Leg 1 of the Winter Series and is a confident selection to confirm his superiority with a successive Grade 3 victory over the extra 200m in Race 6. Rascallion, given the conditions of the contest, is slung in at the weights and should prove too good for the opposition – on official ratings, Marshall’s charge is 4.5kg better off with Pacaya.
With the confidence of that Grade 3 win to his name, Winnaar is good value to land himself a rare feature-race double on the day in Race 7, the Listed Ladies Mile, when he reunites with well-bred Querari filly Rainbow Lorikeet for trainer Candice Bass-Robinson.
He has a good record aboard this progressive daughter of Grade 1-winning Silvano mare Nightingale, having won once and placed in another four of their six associations.
Winnaar was in the saddle two starts back and steered Rainbow Lorikeet to victory over the same track and trip of Sunday’s race. Aldo Domeyer took the reins last time and piloted Bass-Robinson’s charge to an 1800m victory but, as he cannot make the weight (57kg), rides stablemate Gold Poker Game instead.
So, this represents another opportunity Winnaar isn’t likely to miss out on!
Princess Izzy, who won Leg 1 of the fillies and mares Winter Series over 1400m, finished second to Rainbow Lorikeet over 1600m in her previous outing and renews rivalry on 1.5kg better terms for that 0.75-length defeat and should, on these terms, fight for victory.
Grade 1 Cape Guineas runner-up Red Palace, the third string to Bass-Robinson’s bow, is the best-weighted runner in the race and is another with legitimate claims of achieving success after a pleasing comeback sprint which would have tightened her up nicely.
She is better suited to 1600m but is awkwardly drawn in stall No 11, so will have to be used early to find the lead from where she enjoys racing. With that said, the value in the race may lie with fellow three-year-old rivals Princess Izzy and Rainbow Lorikeet, both of whom are consistent and progressive sorts, though preference – and at longer odds – is for the latter who could cap a red-letter day for one of Cape Racing’s ‘lesser lights’ among the jockey ranks.
The 1100m Grade 3 Winter Nursery (Race 2) is the first of the day’s features and is also likely to go the way of the Marshall stable that is doubly represented in the small five-horse field. Richard Fourie sticks with last-start winner Lion Rampart, having won twice and finished third in four starts aboard this One World, so that runner’s chances must be taken seriously. However, stablemate One Stripe beat Lion Rampart (fourth) by 3.20 lengths when winning the Grade 3 Cape Of Good Hope Nursery over 1200m in February and Highveld rider Gavin Lerena makes the trip to Cape Town to ride the exciting two-year-old colt who is also a son of Marshall’s former Met winner and stable star One World.
Clive Robinson
