Another tricky card faces punters at the Vaal Classic track on Thursday 3 April but there are two runners that are expected to go close and even win their respective heats.
Trainer Alec Laird has a couple of good winning chances and his five-year-old mare Virgin River looks the part in race 6, a Divided MR 92 Handicap over 1200m for fillies and mares.
The well-bred mare has in her career raced just 11 times, for two wins and six runner-up finishes.
She has been ultra-consistent by only missing the first four places once and that was fifth on a soft track.
The Vercingetorix mare seems to have improved of late and was a winner of a handicap on the Turffontein Inside track over 1000m last month.
She was allowed to stride and that clearly suited her.
She does also clearly run for jockey Clavin Habib as she has won twice under him in just three starts.
A three-point penalty for her last win may not be enough to anchor her.
A race later, Race 7, Chasing Happiness can bounce back and take out this MR106 Handicap over 1000m.
The Rafeef filly had a good year in 2024 winning four of her five races, including pulling off a hat-trick of wins.
Those wins came at a high cost to her merit-rating so it was not really a surprise that she was unplaced in both her starts this year.
Jockey Piere Strydom gets aboard her this time and she may well have a win left in her tank.
Clive Robinson
