Chase happiness at Vaal

There is the old adage that one should not judge a book by its cover, and one could adjust that saying to encompass horseracing by remarking that one should not judge a runner by its first outing.

However, there are times when a book has a great cover and it is a wonderful read, and that is true of horseracing as well.

Chasing Happiness could not have been more impressive when winning on debut last time, beating Signora Bomba by 4.10 lengths over 1000m on the Turffontein Inside track. Detractors will argue that no winners have come out of that form line and the runner-up has had 11 outings and failed badly in her next race which was on the Polytrack at Hollywoodbets Greyville.

All that is true, but a horse can do no more than win and this daughter of Rafeef did just that. She overcame a slow start but under Gavin Lerena, this Johan Janse van Vuuren-trained runner found strong betting support and the manner of her victory makes her an exciting prospect.

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The Wernars family appear to have yet another useful performer racing in their colours and hopefully she will continue her upward trajectory. We will all learn a lot more about this three-year-old filly on Thursday when she lines up in Race 4, a Graduation Plate for fillies and mares over 1200m up the Vaal straight.

There is no doubt this race will be a test of her talent as there will be some strong opposition this time. Tony Peter has two good runners in Storm Player and Runway Bomb and they probably stand out as the main threats.

Storm Player, in particular, clearly has ability but was narrowly beaten last Thursday by outsider Godspeed. However, she has only raced three times and improvement can be expected with further experience. Craig Zackey has ridden the filly in all three of her starts and he is back on board this time.

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Runway Bomb won her Highveld debut and has placed three times since so she is not without a chance either.

Peter has engaged Muzi Yeni, who was aboard last time, for this ride. She will be coming back in distance as her last start was over 1450m, but it should not be too much of an issue. Interestingly, none of these runners is the best weighted in the field.

David Nieuwenhuizentrained No Filter has feature-race experience and is rated 1.5kg higher than Storm Player, but they will meet at level weights. Calvin Habib takes the ride.