Expect Piere to parade with Copper Parade

So far their record together is quite respectable. Strydom has been in the irons on four occasions and has won twice – in the Golden Horseshoe when Copper Parade was a two-year-old and trained by Joey Ramsden, and most recently in the Computaform Sprint at Turffontein.

Ramsden had always had a high opinion of this son of Lecture and was never scared to put him up against the best. In 2010 the Golden Horseshoe was run over 1450m at Clairwood and Kavanagh was the hot favourite. Mike de Kock’s charge won the race by a short head but was deemed to have caused interference to Copper Parade and who got the race on an objection.

Strydom also rode Copper Parade in the Gold Medallion at Scottsville in which he finished sixth to Link Man and the Premier’s Champion Stakes in which he was well beaten by Gold Onyx.

In October last year Copper Parade moved to Yvette Bremner’s Port Elizabeth yard and since then he has won four of his seven stars, including the Listed Golden Loom Handicap and the Computaform Sprint, both a Turffontein.

In the Computaform Sprint he took on Via Africa, currently recognised as the best 1000m runner in the country, and just when the filly looked home and hosed Strydom brought Copper Parade on the scene to win going away by 0.75 lengths.

There is no Via Africa in today’s Mercury Sprint over 1200m at Clairwood and with Strydom aboard, the duo can notch up another Grade 1 victory. The race is run on weight-for-age terms and that makes Copper Parade the best handicapped horse and is at least 2kg better than any other runner.

Chave De Oura has not raced since finishing unplaced I the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate over 1600m but Dennis Drier’s charge will be better suited to this distance and must have a chance if fully wound up. Stable jockey Sean Cormack has elected to ride the four-year-old son of Jet Master over Barbosa, who ran in the Grade 1 Golden Horse Sprint, so one could assume Chave De Oura is the stable elect.

This year Normanz has regained the form he showed as a two-year-old and notched up back-to-back feature wins in the Listed In Full Flight Handicap over 1100m at Clairwood and Golden Horse Sprint over 1200m at Scottsville, in which he defeated Red Ray by 1.50 lengths.

However, he carried a light weight in both of those events and will only give Copper Parade 0.5kg in this even and on paper is 4.5kg out on handicap. He does have Anton Marcus up and cannot be ignored.