Bridge a Pick 6 banker

It is always great to have a reliable banker when there is a Pick 6 carryover and that looks to be the case at Kenilworth on Sunday.

There will be R200,000 kicking off the pool, which is expected to reach R1.7 million, on what is a most competitive eight-race card.

The good news is that unbeaten Rainbow Bridge lines up in Race 5, the Cape Mile (Non-Black Type).

Bookmakers have priced him up at 5-10 in what is a very decent field and in a race where he is not well handicapped under the race conditions.

However, this son of Ideal World has to be a lot be er than his rating of 104, which proves the value of not winning your races by a large margin.

He does make sup-porters sweat as he comes from far back, looks like he’s not going to get there, but then wins easing up. Trainer Eric Sands has raved about his charge’s ability since the gelding’s first start and has confirmed the well being of his charge.

He also is not surprised by the odds of 5-10 and according to a Gold Circle report, said Rainbow Bridge “deserves to be that price”.Jockey Bernard Fayd’Herbe is another member of the Rainbow Bridge fan club and is back aboard.

The pair are well drawn, jumping from gate No 5. The gelding is also to enjoy the return to Kenilworth this time after having to win at Durbanville last time.

The sad aspect of this race is that Rainbow Bridge runs in the colours of Chris Gerber, who passed away last week.

On paper, however, he is 3kg out with the best handicapped runners – Eyes Wide Open and Fifty Cents.

There is no doubt if Eyes Wide Open is anywhere close to peak fitness he will give Rain-bow Bridge a run for his money but Glen Kotzen’s charge is likely to need a run.

Richard Fourie, who rides the Dynasty colt, knows how tricky his task will be as he rode Rainbow Bridge in his first three starts.

Race 6 sees the running of the Listed Laisserfaire Stakes and this race will be a case of weight versus class.

There is unlikely to be any argument that Magical Wonderland is the class act, but the Candice Bass-Robinson-trained runner has 64.5kg on her back and that is not going to make life easy for jockey Aldo Domeyer.

In addition, she is coming back from a 169-day layoff so fitness could be an issue.

Nevertheless, Magical Wonderland remains the runner they all have to beat.

The dangers could come from Call To Account, Too Phat To Fly and StraatKind.

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