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Cards look trappy as local game returns to action.
One Stripe in action in Cape Town earlier in the season. Picture: Peter Heeger / Gallo Images
When a bear emerges from hibernation it is hungry as hell. Three days of no local racing this week has been a longer than usual slumber for the game and punters’ appetites will be big. They’ll just have to hope the weekend results don’t turn out to be, well, bearish.
Thursday’s Turffontein card looks like it could contain a growl or two.
At Fairview on Friday, champion trainer Justin Snaith travels from Cape Town with a stronger than usual raiding party and could supply a banker or three; but if they fail to fire there could be a mauling.
Saturday sees a double-header at Turffontein and Scottsville and both meetings look “trappy” – meaning full of fur-trapper snares and not friendly to the three little bears.
Finally, there’s Cape Town on Sunday and some respite – in the form of a rock-solid exotic bets banker.
That horse, of course, is One Stripe, the three-year-old who won both the Cape Guineas and the L’Ormarins King’ Plate this season and who has been booked on a plane to foreign climes and, hopefully, great glory and riches.
One Stripe’s swansong to South Africa is in the HSH Princess Charlene Big Cap, a new sales race with huge prize money that the connections are hoping will help pay for the overseas adventure.
It’ll be the last time veteran trainer Vaughan Marshall saddles the colt – with Graham Motion in the US set to take over the job. It’s also probably the last time jockey Gavin Lerena partners the six-time winner.
So, the pressure is on.
Because of his heroics, One Stripe must give weight to all nine opponents in the 1400m gallop around the Kenilworth turn, but the evidence of those very deeds suggest he’ll manage the task with ease. His competitive nature and acceleration – not to mention a neat inside draw – make him the best bet in a long time.
The CRS Cape Slipper is Race 2 on the card, therefore thankfully out of most exotic bets as it is one of those juvenile tests of strength that can throw up any result.
Snaith has a strong hand with three runners, including unbeaten Black Cheetah and smart filly Clair De Lune, who gets weight from her male rivals.
Marshall is also triple armed, with debut winner Dreamworld his pick. The colt is by One World, father of One Stripe, so there’ll be interest in his potential to replace the departing champ.
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