Favourites are rolling in. Easy game?

A recent run of punter-friendly results on the Highveld will have whet appetites for Thursday’s proceedings at the Vaal. There’s just one problem, though: the complete absence of a decent banker for the Pick 6.

The best bets on the card come in the first two races, before the most popular wager gets underway. Mitch Got His Wish in Race 1 and Marigold Hotel in Race 2 look nailed on, whereas most of the Pick 6 races are wide open and keeping the

permutation cost below R1,000 (as is usually the intention) is no easy task. Take Race 4, Leg 1, for example. There are just six runners and there can be no surprise winner, so the inclination is to bang in the whole field. Similarly, Race 7 cries out for most if not all runners to be included.

But Races 5 and 6 – with bigger fields, weak favourites and clusters of horses with a shout – demand that one goes wide. How do you economise in your selections?

Who said horse racing was an easy game? Trainer St John Gray carries a strong hand into Race 3, a Maiden Plate
down the 1600m straight and the first leg of the Pick 6, and maybe we can rely on him to ease our dilemma. He saddles three horses, all likely to be near the top of the betting boards – Amberglo Star, Bedouin Bride and Party Song.

All three are well overdue a debut win and Gray has hauled in star jockeys Gavin Lerena and Luke Ferraris to partner the first two named – signalling a determination to get at least one of them over the line in front at last. So, if we keep Leg 1 down to these two horses, we can accommodate a few more elsewhere.

SELECTIONS

Race 1:

7 Mitch Got His Wish, 3 Rollwiththepunches, 2 Retallick, 1 Fisher King
Race 2:

2 Marigold Hotel, 6 Kwazzi’s Lady, 3 On Cue, 1 Bella Chica

Race 3:
1 Amberglo, 3 Bedouin Bride, 9 Undertheradar, 13 Nitro Girl

Race 4:
3 Nimcha, 4 Sell High, 2 Johnny Hero, 1 Cornish Pomodoro

Race 5:
6 Ushuaia, 1 Cash Time, 3 Master And Man, 5 Fred

Race 6:
2 Samoa, 10 Hear The Trumpet, 11 Lagertha, 3 Dalgety Bay

Race 7:
3 Herstel, 4 May Queen, 7 Ulla, 6 Glowtoria

Race 8:
6 Golden Spoon, 12 Afternoon Tea, 7 After Hours, 15 Speechmaker

Pick 6:

1,3 x 2,3,4 x 1,3,5,6 x 2,3,10,11 x 3,4,7 x 6,7,12 (R864)

PA:

2 x 1,3 x 3 x 1,6 x 2,10,11 x 3,4 x 6 (R24)

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