Western Cape racing features a 10-race programme for horseplayers on Tuesday and there appears to plenty meat on the bone in terms of betting opportunities.
Miraculous, Kamchatka and Carriacou rate as some of the better bets on the day and exotic bets are always enticing at this centre.
Miraculous races for the bang-in-form yard of trainer Brett Crawford. She is from the same Rafeef/Var cross that produced last weekend’s best bet Cats Pajamas who not only confirmed his Grade 2 win was no fluke but that he now rates a strong contender for the major sprints.
Miraculous jumped from a wide gate on debut but whereas other runners were battling to make it up she seemed to glide up to the leaders, but she then had nowhere to go as the field fell back on her, and she finished sixth, beaten 2.25 lengths.
As the fastest finisher in the race, she could be a quality filly in the making and could make a statement in Race 1, a Maiden Plate for fillies and mares over 1250m, for Crawford whose yard is churning out winners with regular monotony again.
Crawford once again has struck up a solid partnership with talented rider Louie Mxothwa and the combo could also strike in Race 8 with Mont Loisir who is back to his best distance of 1400m in a Class 4 handicap.
The gelded son of Vercingetorix should come back to best after having things go a bit awry in his last two races. He was ultra-consistent prior and a hard horse to catch when racing up with the pace but unfortunately for him the horse that gave him a galloping lesson previously is also in the race, and that is Carriacou.
Carriacou is not as consistent but quickened away powerfully and beat Mont Loisir by 3.90 lengths in May and is only 0.5kg worse off. Trainer Eric Sands has got him to run three good races in a row so perhaps has figured him out and he can prove to be consistent. A further pointer to his chances is that he was earlier second to Montien, then with a merit rating 92, who has gone on to a mouth-watering rating of 120.
Carriacou should rate as one best bets on the card but couple him with Mont Loisir in Swingers and Exactas. But a horse that looks difficult to beat and may prove to be a popular banker in exotics is Kamchatka for trainer Andre Nel. The promising chestnut filly lines up in Race 5, an Open Maiden Plate.
She is a lively Erupt/Jet Master cross and certainly showed she has plenty speed when over-racing but, nevertheless, stayed on against promising peers such as Mai Sensation and Golden Angel who look headed for better things. She was only 3.75 lengths adrift at the wire.
It was a surprise then to see her taking on her elders and jumping in distance to the 1600m after having only raced over 1250m.
She appears to be taking a steep drop-in class and even if she does a bit much in the early stages it is difficult to see anything get by. She has drawn well too and could run out a very easy winner.
Clive Robinson
