You Beauty looks better than her rating

Hardly a meeting goes by without some horse making his or her provincial debut and that makes life tricky for punters, especially when their first run is in a stakes or plate race.

You Beauty, who runs in Race 3 on the turf track today, is a perfect example. This Glen Kotzen-trained runner makes her second appearance at Fairview in a Pinnacle Stakes over 1000m. On paper she is not well weighted against the likes of

Yoshie or Russian Mig, but her merit rating is calculated from her racing in Cape Town where she took on a lot stronger opposition than she faces in this event.

On debut she was beaten by Pure Power who went on to finish second behind In The Fast Lane in last year’s Grade 2 Choice Carriers Championship. She was beaten 1.15 lengths by Als Bonanza who has also raced and performed against stronger. As a result You Beauty’s merit rating of 78 could be close to, or even as good as, top-rated Yoshie’s rating of 96.

In her first run over this course and distance You Beauty was beaten a neck by Benedict in a MR 80 Handicap in which she took on the males. In that event she carried 59kg and this time she will have just 52.5kg to shoulder.

She will also have the services of extremely competent Juan Paul van der Merwe, who will make good use of her light weight and excellent pace.

Yoshie has performed well over this course and distance before and must come into the reckoning, especially with in-form Greg Cheyne on her back.

Russian Mig might be six-years-old but this Hekkie Strydom-trained runner is rarely far off the pace, whether he races over 1000m or 1600m.