Feather Boa is hot stuff at Turffontein

It’s going to be hot, both the weather and the racing, at Turffontein on Saturday. Technically it’s the Spring Challenge meeting, but it’ll be more like a mid-summer bake-off – with no Highveld storm on the horizon to cool things down.

Punters will be sweating, due to temperatures above 30 degrees and the task of finding affordable Pick 6 combinations on a red-hot racecard carrying a R6-million pool.

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For exotic bet perms, going as wide as possible in the two feature races – the Betway Joburg Spring Challenge and the Betway Joburg Spring F&M Challenge – is inescapable.

Weight-for-age races should make selection easier than in handicaps, but here there are a cluster of complicating factors.

Quite a few horses are returning from sabbaticals, others are not fully wound up as they prepare for bigger things to come, yet others are promising three-year-olds running in open company for the first time, and some are experimenting with a different distance. And then there is afternoon heat and hard ground adding grist to the mill.

Lone filly

In the nominal male division, there is a lone filly to confuse us. Trainer Billy Ruiters had Miss Daisy entered for both heats and opted for the pole gate with the boys rather than the No 16 he got among the girls.

The daughter of Crusade likes this Inside course and has competed strongly in a features at the downtown Joburg venue – including landing the Grade 3 Starling Stakes and a NBT last time out in early September. She gets plenty of kilos from several of the male entries and has to be considered.

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One male carrying less than Miss Daisy is three-year-old Main Defender, who was one of last season’s best juveniles. A key factor with this guy is the money he has attracted in the rooms: from a form-guide call of 7-1, he has been chopped to 3-1.

Main Defender is trained by Turffontein conditioner Tony Peter, who will surely be wanting to make some sort of statement ahead of his controversial upcoming hearing on alleged doping charges.

Dave The King

Mike de Kock’s runner Dave The King, who made a brave bid in the Durban July and ran a commendable third to Princess Calla in the Champions Cup, is the horse weighted to win. But he has an uncomfortable 13 draw from the 1450m barrier and is one of those in the tune-up stages.

Anfields Rocket runs well fresh and loves the Big T. Thunderstruck, MK’s Pride, Bingwa and William Robertson are classy. Quantum Theory is a dark horse and decent value at 12-1.

Feather Boa, one of the unluckiest horses in racing, tops the betting boards in the fillies and mares Spring Challenge. She’s well overdue a feature success – and many a player will be relying on her to finally crack it.