Dawnbreaker might edge Founders Trophy

Racing in Port Elizabeth is always highly competitive and a perfect example of this is today’s feature race on the Fairview Polytrack, the Founders Trophy, a Non Black-Type Handicap over 1600m.

Each of the eight runners has a plausible argument for winning the R110,000 event and opting for the fi eld in exotic bets is a sensible call.

However, if the be ing budg-et demands a trimming down of numbers, one could omit the Jacques Strydom coupling of Dessert Wisdom and Frikkie, both of whom will find this contest shorter and sharper than they have been used to of late.That still leaves six horses who look very evenly matched.

A boxed Quartet of numbers 1 to 6 is an obvious bet that might return a modest profit.

Trainer Gavin Smith’s ultra-consistent Dawn breaker has had eight outings on the Polytrack for four wins and four places and naturally rises to the top of the form-gazer’s list Craig Zackey is booked for the ride and was a course-and-distance feature race winner on the chestnut back in May, so he knows the territory.

Eastern Cape champion trainer Alan Greeff goes in with two guns, Fire In The Belly and Union Jack.

The la er, from draw no 4, might be the stable elect as he’ll be ridden by their top jockey, Greg Cheyne.

Union Jack won last time out, over 1600m on the Fairview turf course, beating Stormy Eclipse, who re-opposes here. The win-ning margin was 2.75 lengths and the winner’s weight advantage was 4kg.

That gap has come down to 1.5kg, so Tara Laing’s admirable nine-time winning grey should be in the thick of things here.

Afrikaburn is a star of the PE satellite yard of national champion trainer Justin Snaith and seems sure to be in the reckoning