Greeff filly to ‘Facinate’ punters

But, as the Good Book tells us, “good things come to those wait”, and the “good thing” today pops up in Race 8 where Alan Greeff saddles Facinating Filly in a MR 61 Handicap over 1200m. Her name might be badly spelt but this daughter of Antonius Pius looks fascinating indeed. She has raced four times for two wins and two places – and both of those wins have come over 1200m on the Polytrack.

She made her debut over 1000m on the Polytrack and finished a 3.50-length fourth to Hammie’s Wildcat and second time out raced over 1400m on the turf, staying on late to end up a 2.70-length fourth behind True Grit. Three winners have come from that form line and one of them is Facinating Filly.

She streaked away from her opposition to beat Forest Nymph by 2.25 lengths and followed up with a second victory in which she produced a sustained finish to defeat Dream To Reality by 0.75 lengths.

The handicappers were clearly not impressed by that run and only penalised her 1.5kg. She will run off a merit rating of just 61 and that could mean there is still a lot mileage in that assessment.

Greg Cheyne has ridden her in all her starts and is on board again. They also have the benefit of jumping from No 3 draw.

Against her is that she will be conceding weight to some battle-scarred opposition, headed by Peregrine King and Sudden Surprise. Neither has been tried on the Polytrack and Peregrine King only recently arrived from KwaZulu-Natal while Sudden Surprise has been plying his trade at Flamingo Park in Kimberley where they race on sand.

Peregrine King ran on well in his second outing in Port Elizabeth to go down a head to Davie Bowy but that was over 1400m on the turf. The five-year-old gelding is only a one-time winner but he is drawn No 1 and has Raymond Danielson up.

The six-year-old Sudden Surprise is a 10-time winner so he deserves respect, but will be having his first run in Port Elizabeth. Muzi Yeni rides and they jump from barrier No 9.