Start with Marcus at Greyville on Sunday

Saying veteran jockey Anton Marcus has been dominat­ing the KZN racing scene of late is an absolute understate­ment. Going through this Sunday’s Greyville card one can’t help but foresee him scoring a couple more winners, making him the man to follow on the day.

Marcus reunites with Desmond Egdes-trained Flower Blue in Race 1, a Maiden Plate over 1200m on the Pol­ytrack. The pair will be looking to redeem themselves from their last run when 2.40 lengths in third behind Bye Bye Baby. This three-year-old son of National Emblem wasn’t disgraced in that outing considering it came after a lengthy three-month layoff and he lost a length at the start.

Flower Blue should be in fine fettle now making him very hard to outshine. He’ll have a little more than that in his favour though, he’s the best handicapped runner in the race, jumps from a good No 5 draw and will shoul­der 60kg – 2.5kg more than Up In Smoke, which on paper shouldn’t be too much of a disadvantage.

Perhaps one of the safer bets on the card, Marcus will ride classy Palladium in Race 2, a MR 80 Handicap over 1200m. A son of Silvano, this three-year-old has run against a lot stronger so should have the upper hand in this event. Palladium was extremely unlucky over his last five starts, when heavily backed yet failing to win.

He won his first race over 1200m so I’m hoping the re­turn to 1200m along with his recent gelding do the trick, helping him return to winning ways. Palladium will shoulder a heavy 61.5kg and will have to overcome a wide No 8 draw – however his class should see him through.

Ironically both these runners are carded number one in their respective races and could well be number one past the winning post, come Sunday.