There do not appear to be a glut of fillies and mares who can race with much success over 2400m and that should make Lucky Gambler a hard horse to beat in the Wedgewood Handicap (Non-Black Type) for the fairer sex over that distance today.
She is now eight years old but the daughter of Silvano is typical of his progeny in that they tend to be late developers. She started her career on the Highveld where she was trained by Devin Little and moved to Port Elizabeth in February.
She has raced six times at Fairview with four of them on the turf but her lone win in the province has been on the Polytrack over 1900m. She is quite versatile in that respect and can run over anything from 1800m to 3200m.
In her last three starts she has taken on the boys and did extremely well in the Listed Glenlair Trophy over 3200m in which she finished a 3.50-length third behind Crown Of Gold who has a super record over staying distances.
Her last run was in the Port Elizabeth Gold Cup which is over 3600m and is the longest race in the country. She was used to set the pace and with 400m to run she had only dropped out to third, 2.50 lengths behind the leader. But all the use made of her early on told in the closing stages and she faded badly to finish one from last.
Against her own sex and a drop in distance to 400m should suit the Alan Greeff-trained runner and she could prove hard to beat.
Looking at the jockey arrangements it would appear Withbatedbreath is the stable elect as Andrew Fortune gets the ride. She did finish fourth in the Gold Cup, beaten 10 lengths, but she was given a more circumspect ride by Teaque Gould who is now on Lucky Gambler.
Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.
