/horses
Wednesday 17 May 2017
Racing Express
Tips and form 4 meetings
Index
Highveld Awards Nom & Betting World 1900 Page 2 Entries For Scottsville & Cape Nurseries Entries Page 3 Vaal Fields Thursday Pages 4 & 5
Mollett's World, Hong Kong & UK Previews Page 6 International Fields Wednesday Page 7 International Affairs & Morrice Tips Page 8
Romi’s Boy to score IMPROVEMENT: LAIRD’S CHARGE HAS STARTED TO SHOW TRUE ABILITY SINCE GELDING ʂʂ Angel’s Power also has some outstanding recent form. Jack Milner
B
efore he had even run, the word was out that trainer Alec Laird had a high opinion of Romi’s Boy. He made his debut at the Vaal on 1 October in a strongly contested Maiden Plate which was won by Doosra with Romi’s Boy in second, beaten 1.75 lengths. It was no surprise when he went off at 3-10 to win his second start and he duly obliged, beating Furiosa by 1.50 lengths. He was strongly fancied to win the Listed Secretariat Stakes over 1400m at Turffontein but after leading from the off, faded badly to finish 8.50 lengths behind Matador Man. He was gelded after that and after running a third, and second place respectively, he eventually cantered to victory in a Progress Plate over 1200m on the Turffontein Inside track, beating
Doosra by 5.75 lengths. He only got a six-point penalty for that win, the maximum allowed for a plate race, so his rating could still be below the curve when he lines up in Race 7 on the Vaal Inside track tomorrow, Only eight horses are carded to go to post and JP van der Merwe takes the ride. The main threat should come from Mike Azzie-trained Angel’s Power, who can in his CV claim he was beaten just 0.30 lengths by Rafeef, the winner of this year’s Computaform Sprint, over the course and distance. He went on to win two more races after that and will give Romi’s Boy 2kg. Apprentice Lyle Hewitson was due to ride Angel’s Power but he recovering from a broken collarbone after a fall at Fairview on Saturday. However, Anthony Delpech has picked up the ride so he could be a big threat to Romi’s Boy. There is one interesting question we would all love answered is which one would Piere Strydom have taken? He has only ridden Romi’s Boy twice, and that was for both of his wins. He has also ridden Angel’s Power four times, for the second behind Rafeef, the two
FOLLOW THE BOY. Romi's Boy returns to the Vaal for at MR 92 Handicap over 1200m tomorrow and will have strong claims of winning. wins and in his third run in which he went down a short head to African Ruler. Strydom is out of action for the next couple of weeks but I would imagine both Laird and
Azzie would be keen to have him aboard. Others with chances include Double Appeal, Sporting Monarch and Morpheus.
Gavin Lerena to open his British account at Bath Gavin Lerena will be having his first ride since relocating to the UK for their summer at Bath today. Lerena is carded to ride Mu-
dajaj for the Charlie Hills yard in the second race which goes off at 6.55pm (SA time). The horse, who runs in the colours of Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum,
has been priced up as 6-1 fourth favourite. The race is over 2300m. Mudajaj made a solid start when an eight-length fourth to Oasis Charm at Leicester over
Racing Express every Monday, Wednesday & Friday
Greyville
1800m in April and steps up in trip. He has also been entered for the Group 2 Queen’s Vase next month but at this stage that looks a somewhat optimistic entry.
Best Tips!
R280,000
Scottsville moved to Saturday The race meeting scheduled for Scottsville today has been postponed to Saturday. A track inspection was carried out yesterday morning by the track manager and a trainer from Ashburton and it was agreed that there was no prospect of the race meeting going ahead as planned. “Fortunately Turffontein is a standalone meeting on Saturday and hence, with the blessing of Phumelela, we have made the decision to postpone to this date,” said Gold Circle Racing Executive Raf Sheik. More than 200mm has fallen over Greyville since Friday and a decision regarding the Betting World 1900 race meeting will be made later. The weather forecast suggests the sun will be out from today. But the turf track will need ideal weather conditions for it to dry sufficiently. “For this reason we have kept Sunday as a Plan B option should the track require more time, "With our major race days on the horizon, we are very mindful that we need to avoid causing excessive damage to the racing surfaces. "At the same keeping the disruption to the planned racing programmes to an absolute minimum,” Sheik said.
Best Info!
Leg 1 (Race 4) 18h25
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Fri 19 May
R1,500,000!