Ashley seeking better fortune this season

Vaal-based trainer Ashley Fortune has planned a buoyant start to the new season, fielding a clutch of horses with winning chances at the riverside racecourse on Tuesday.

Fortune only gained her training licence in early 2018 but plenty of earlier experience of working with horses saw her become an overnight success. Remarkably, she finished in the top 10 on the national championship log in the 2019/20 season. The disrupted season just completed was not quite as successful, but she did finish in the top 20, and will surely be wanting to bounce back quickly.

Her new term could get rolling in Race 1, a Maiden Plate sprint for three-year-olds, which she contests with the colt Buck’s Fizz, who made a promising debut in early July and will have improved a lot in the intervening month.

An all-out Fortune assault on the early races on the card continues in the second, when her son-in-law Aldo Domeyer returns from a spell out of the saddle to ride hot-pot favourite Abalus. This filly by Jackson has rung up four seconds in a row since mid-May and is over-ripe to burst her maiden.

Another red-hot filly, Bella Chica, is the Fortune gambit in Race 3, an FM82 Handicap down the 1000m Vaal straight. Calvin Habib is entrusted with the job of completing a hat-trick for the four-year-old daughter of Rafeef – and a fourth career victory in just eight starts.

The next volley of Fortune fire comes in Race 4, an FM71 Handicap, also over 1000m. On Cue, yet another three-year-old filly, carries the flag with up-and-coming apprentice jockey Philisande Mxoli claiming 2.5kg off the allotted 57.5. Since her maiden win over this course and distance in February, On Cue has been running consistently well and is due another visit to the winner’s circle.

Fortune’s fifth runner on the day, Elusive Woman in Race 8, is not without a hope, either.

SELECTIONS

Race 1:

6 Whafeef, 1 Buck’s Fizz, 7 Golden Aspen, 2 Duke Of Rain

Race 2:

1 Abalus, 3 Eastern Belle, 7 Magic To The Fore, 4 Silvette

Race 3:

4 Bella Chica, 3 Cold Fact, 6 Spanish Song, 1 Winter Watch

Race 4:

4 On Cue, 3 Upcloseandpersonal, 5 Hear The Trumpet, 7 Madame Patrice

Race 5:

3 Orus Apollo, 7 Western Dance, 2 Fred, 1 Gold Griffin

Race 6:

3 Imperial Dancer, 2 Spartan Warrior, 5 Grimaldi, 4 El Romiachi

Race 7:

10 Dragon Queen, 8 Big City Girl, 5 Belle Of Belize, 3 Now You See Me

Race 8:

5 Rainy Season, 8 Florida Keys, 6 Officer, 1 Snow Symphony

Pick 6:

1,3,4,6,7 x 4 x 1,2,3,7 x 2,3,4,5,8 x 5,8,10 x 1,2,5,6,8 (R1500)

PA:

1 x 3,4 x 4 x 3,7 x 2,3 x 10 x 5,6,8 (R24)