Follow the colours of Pick 6 money at Turffontein

If there’s one certainty on a tricky day’s racing at Turffontein on Saturday it’s that the red, white and black silks of the Wernars family of owners will be to the fore.

The colours are emblazoned on the cover of the Computaform guide – in a photo of Puerto Manzano, last year’s winner of the Allied Steelrode On A Mission Charity Mile. But of more immediate importance to racing fans this weekend is that the colours will be carried by more than a dozen well-fancied runners – for various trainers – on the day.

It would be a surprise if none of these horses pitched up in the winner’s circle.

Also well represented is the grey and blue of the ASSM Racing Syndicate headed up by Arun Chadha, the CEO of Allied Steelrode, sponsors of the R1-million, Grade 2 headline race and enthusiastic backers of the annual charity initiative.

This gentleman will doubtless be keen to grab some limelight on the big day and his trainers will be briefed to deliver.

This scenario could help out those of us keen to crack a Pick 6 with a likely R5-million pool – in the shape of a couple of bankers.

With five black type races on the programme, the competition is ferocious and all punters will be inclined to go wide in most legs of Pick 6 permutations – making a banker, or bankers, essential.

Other races

ASSM’s three-year-old filly Fatal Flaw presents the first banker possibility in Race 5, Leg 2, the Grade 3 HSH Princess Charlene Starling Stakes over 1400m.

Having finished second no fewer than five times in her seven outings, the daughter of New Predator will turn things around sooner rather than later. Two of those runner-up finishes were behind the champion Quid Pro Quo in the July Durban season; no disgrace there.

When trainer James Crawford recently brought her back from a 14-week rest, Fatal Flaw showed her usual zest for the task. She’ll have come on with that effort, is well weighted and, with the master Piere Strydom in the irons, is the one to beat.

Her main opposition will come from Salenio Peninsula – bearing the Wernars’ fleur de lys.

However, Race 6, Leg 3 of the Pick 6, could be the Wernars’ moment, with The Specialist looking the pick of the bunch in another Grade 3, the Betway Graham Beck Stakes.

This striking chestnut colt, a two-time winner from seven starts, performed well in a couple of feature races in the KwaZulu-Natal winter. Owned in a partnership with other racing luminaries, he recently moved up from the coast to leading trainer Sean Tarry’s yard at Randjesfontein.

He could be destined for big things and was heavily backed on his Highveld debut in early September. He finished second that day and the connections will surely want to put matters to rights.

The country’s most in-form jockey, Gavin Lerena, has been given that task.

SUGGESTED PICK 6 PERM

1,2,4,5,6,9,11,12 x 2 x 2 x 1,3,4,5,9,13 x 5,6,7,8,10 x 4,5,10,11,12,14 (R1,440)