Cracking race to honour Senor Santa; weekend perms

The Senor Santa Stakes is named after one of the great sprinters of the South African turf and a field of fitting quality will assemble in his memory at the 1160m starting pole on the Turffontein Standside course on Saturday.

Senor Santa, by Northern Guest, raced between the ages of two and eight, won 15 times on five different racecourses around the country and became the first sprinter to top R1 million in stakes amassed.

None of the horses in the line-up for this weekend’s Grade 2 renewal have matched that record yet, though a handful of them already have six or seven wins to their names.

Chimichuri Run is the highest-rated runner on 126, boasting seven wins in 30 runs, including two on the trot in his most recent outings. His consistency and course-and-distance stats are superb and he’d be a hot favourite is it wasn’t for the steadying 62kg he has to lug. Nonetheless, he is a big factor.

Stablemate Eden Roc, a year younger, is from the same mould – six from 18 and seldom running a bad race. Despite a 60kg impost, he, too, should be in the picture.

Other hardy campaigners who can never be discounted include Bohica, Winter Stories and True To Life, while at the bottom end of the weight scale, allocated just 52kg, is Vars Vicky, a three-year-old who notched a fourth win in February in a MR102 contest and to push his way into the top echelon.

But it is another three-year-old that is the biggest talking point in the race. Mount Pleasant had the racing world murmuring with pleasure when he first stepped out for the Mike de Kock team and rattled off three sprint wins in a row.

Sent out at odds-on for the 1600m Dingaans, Mount Pleasant was a huge disappointment and questions were raised about his stamina credentials. These were answered when he again finished unplaced in the Gauteng Guineas and De Kock declared that, henceforth, the son of Vancouver would only be campaigned “up the straight”.

Well, the Senor Santa Stakes is up the straight and will be a test of whether this Australian import is as good as everyone once suspected. Punters still harbour some doubts, however, and haven’t piled on the money – understandably given the high quality of the opposition here – but the colt must surely be included in exotic-bet permutations.

There’s a meaty programme to support Turffontein’s main event, with the Drum Star Handicap attracting some top horses and the Derby Trial and the Ormond Ferraris Oaks Trial also offering good racing.

The parallel Saturday meeting in Cape Town is at the country course in Durbanville, with small fields the order of the day. It’s a racing adage that the smaller the field the bigger the upset, so some caution is advised.

On Sunday, the spotlight swings across to Durban, where a nine-race card is topped by a Pinnacle Stakes sprint – a nice desert to the main speed dish in Joburg the day before.

A familiar storyline has a lightly weighted youngster, Spydas Corner, taking on well-proven elders such as Sunset Eyes, Chantyman and Pearl Of Asia.

The latter might be the one to go for if budgetary demands are tight.

Selections

Turffontein (Saturday)

Race 1: Watch betting

Race 2: Watch betting

Race 3:

1 Forever Mine, 5 Celestial Love, 2 Valyrian King, 3 Captain Morisco

Race 4:

2 Running Brave, 5 Green Haze, 6 Pack Leader, 4 Youcanthurrylove

Race 5:

5 Baymax, 3 Invincible Warrior, 2 Pamushana’s Pride, 6 Super Handsome

Race 6:

2 Travelling Wilbury, 1 Ideal Jet, 5 Keepingthepeace, 4 Astral Plane

Race 7:

Mount Pleasant, 2 Eden Roc, 1 Chimichuri Run, 6 True To Life

Race 8:

5 Imperial Duke, 3 Fred, 2 FSquadron, 6 Afraad

Race 9:

3 Epic Dream, 4 Battleoftrafalgar, 13 Battle Force, 14 Written In Stone

Pick 6

2,4,5,6 x 2,3,5,6 x 2 x 1,2,4 x 2,3,5,6 x 3,4,13,14 (R768)

PA

1,5 x 2,5 x 2,3,5 x 2 x 4 x 3,5 x 3,4 (R48)

Durbanville (Saturday)

Pick 6 (Races 3-8)

1,3,4 x 5,7,8 x 2,3,7 x 3,4 x 5 x 1,2,7,8,10 (R270)

PA (Races 2-8)

3,4 x 1,4 x 7 x 2,7 x 3 x 5 x 1,2,8 (R24)

Greyville (Sunday)

Pick 6 (Races 4-9)

1,2,8 x 1,2,6,9,12 x 1,10 x 2,4,5,6 x 1,2,5,11 x 5,8 (R960)

PA

2 x 2,8 x 6,9 x 10 x 2,4,5 x 1,5,11 x 8 (R36)

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