Boys ready to push aside girls in East Coast Derby

Finding and nurturing good staying horses has been a forte of Eastern Cape trainers from way back. So, it’s a little disappointing to see just seven three-year-olds lining up for the 2400m WSB East Cape Derby at Fairview on Friday. Not only are the marathon ranks dramatically thinned, so is male representation.

Three of the Derby runners are fillies, who just happened to finish 1, 2 and 3 in the East Cape Oaks last month. Further bruising the image of the tough, endurance, macho-men of the borderlands, two of those girls top the betting boards.

But our task is to make winning calls from a situation as it presents itself, not to indulge in nostalgia about the days when men were men and sheep were nervous.

Swazi Queen, a raider from Candice Bass-Robinson’s Cape Town yard, got up on the line to nose out locally trained Colorado Springs in the 2000m Oaks in mid-April.

These two fillies are at 3-2 and 5-2 respectively, even though Alan Greeff-trained Colorado Springs has a 1kg advantage this time – theoretically more than enough to turn things around from the earlier level-weight contest.

Topping the Derby weights with 60kg is Gavin Smith’s colt Jaeger Moon, who concedes 2.5kg and 3.5kg to the favourites.

This guy put together six wins in a row between late-September and April, three of them over 2000m and one on this turf surface.

The phenomenal string of 1s in the form line was spoiled by a 3 in the course-and-distance Derby Plate on Oaks day. That was a second run after a rest and the son of Capetown Noir seemed out of sorts on the day.

Jaeger Moon can be forgiven that minor lapse and, with all the main protagonists trying 2400m for the first time, he should be robust enough to see off the female challenge at odds of 4-1. After all, his trainer is from the PE old school and knows how a guy goes about winning a Derby.

The Derby Plate was won by gelding Heartbreak Hotel, who had just completed a switch from Justin Snaith to Cliffie Miller, and who would seem to have the wherewithal to be a handy horse in Gqebehra. He’s at 6-1.

SELECTIONS

Race 1:

3 Forbidden Affair, 10 Just So Easy, 11 Isn’t It Bliss, 4 Pure Quality

Race 2:

Many first-timers; watch the betting

Race 3:

Many first-timers; watch the betting

Race 4:

1 World Radar, 5 Centillus, 3 Kimberley Star, 2 What A Winner

Race 5:

3 Sugar Gum, 2 Racine, 5 Scented Garden, 1 La Bella Mia

Race 6:

5 Gold Rock, 3 Greek Fire, 4 Mio Grande, 6 Danilo

Race 7:

1 Jaeger Moon, 6 Colorado Springs, 3 Heartbreak Hotel, 5 Swazi Spa

Race 8:

3 Golden Chance, 2 Water Spirit, 6 Step Lively, 1 The Highway Man

Race 9:

2 Stage Dance, 5 Encryption, 12 Forest Field, 8 Kiss Of Life

Pick 6:

1 x 1,2,3,5 x 3,4,5,6 x 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 x 1,2,3,6 x 2,5,12 (R1344)

PA:

12 x 1 x 2,3 x 3,5 x 1,3,6 x 2,3,6 x 2 (R36)