Captain Tatters appears to have it all sewn up

If Captain Tatters doesn’t win Race 4 on the Greyville Polytrack on Monday, the handicappers’ merit rating system will look, um, a bit tatty.

Justin Snaith’s gelding has only won one race, his very first one at Durbanville in April 2019. Yet, after 13 more outings, he glories in an MR of 109 – in the realms of the elite. Computaform’s pundit describes him as possibly “the most accomplished one-time winner around”.

The reason for this is that Snaith has campaigned his horse mainly in feature races and good showings in those events have seen the MR climb steadily upwards despite zero more visits to the winner’s circle.

Captain Tatters has finished just behind the likes of stablemates Erik The Red and Rio Querari, not to mention Wonderwall, Chantyman and Kilindini.

To try to get that second win on the board, Snaith took Captain Tatters to Eastern Cape, where the opposition was considered a little weaker – but he arrived at the winning post just a split second too late. The next try was a work-rider race at Scottsville, where an unsettled passage ended with another runner-up slot – the sixth of his career.

He lined up for the Grade 1 Golden Horse Sprint, again at Scottsville, a 20-1 shot and generally considered outclassed. But Tatters produced his usual whole-hearted effort to finish fourth, less than a length adrift of winner Battle Force. The handicappers promptly nailed him with another four merit points. Give a guy a break!

Captain Tatters is handicapped to win Monday’s Qualified Graduation contest by miles. With the magic hands of S’Manga Khumalo holding his reins for the first time, and a good draw, it should be so.

Interestingly, Snaith fitted blinkers for the first time in the Golden Horse and they are retained. A tongue-tie has been added. You can’t say the yard isn’t trying things.

The next best rated runner is Sir Michael on 94 – and carrying 3kg more.

Two teensy doubts are that Captain Tatters has not tackled 1400m since that debut win and that he is coming off a 71-day break. However, the Greyville Poly 1400m is not the toughest in the world and is probably akin to Scottsville’s rugged 1200m, over which he did so well. And a 109-rated horse has the class to handle a short break from racing, surely.

SELECTIONS

Race 1:

8 Giuseppe’s Song, 9 Story Book, 7 Guy Fox, 4 Tilmeeth

Race 2:

7 Knight Warrior, 11 Great Guy, 8 Higher Purpose, 1 Lightening Spirit

Race 3:

3 What A Blast, 1 White Cedar, 10 Ancient State, 7 Forest Jump

Race 4:

5 Captain Tatters, 7 Sir Michael, 1 Greenlighttoheaven, 9 Giacomo Puccini

Race 5:

Blue Planet, 7 Magical Midlands, 4 Legislate’s Dance, 2 Count Marsh

Race 6:

4 Panna Cotta, 9 You Deserve It, 10 Que For You, 1 Cool Apache

Race 7:

4 Dancing Sword, 6 Flying First Class, 1 Hot Money, 2 Ice Imperial

Race 8:

7 Mystic Master, 11 Giants Castle, 4 Don’t Touch Me, 8 Zero Rate

Pick 6:

1,3,7,10 x 5 x 1,2,4,7,9 x 1,4,9,10 x 1,2,4,6,9,10,11 x 4,7,11 (R1680)

PA:

7,8,11 x 1,3 x 5 x 4,7 x 4,9 x 4,6 x 7 (R48)