Hang hopes on Chatuchak

It takes a bit of courage to choose a banker early on in an exotic bet. It becomes an all-or-nothing charge at the first hurdle, with all one’s careful form calculations – not to mention costly permutations – riding on that one trusted runner up front.

We have such a situation at Kenilworth today, with the most obvious banker options presenting themselves in the first and second legs of the Pick 6.

In the first leg, Race 3 over 1200m, Miss Smarty Pants stands out from the crowd of maiden fillies and mares.

Trainer Brett Crawford might not be having the remarkable season he had last year, but still maintains a strike rate of note, while Corne Orffer holds his own among the top riders in Cape Town. The two team up with three-year-old Miss Smarty Pants, who is likely to start a short-priced favourite.

This daughter of Horse Chestnut collected a pair of decent third places in her first two career outings late last year – over tomorrow’s course and distance. Then she was tried over 1600m and finished a 4.45-length seventh to Tease – a step up which might have been a tad steep for one so young and inexperienced. Dropped to 1400m, Miss Smarty Pants finished well to get within 1.35 lengths of the winner.

Back over 1200m, she looks primed to break the maiden.

A couple of well exposed fillies in the field are unlikely to bother Miss Smarty Pants, but there are a handful of relative newcomers to racing who might show rapid improvement – notably Magic Mary, another Crawford inmate, who raced green on debut just over two weeks ago but still got to 3.10 lengths of the winner over this course and distance.

A third Crawford runner is the unraced Capital Q, the sole four-year-old among a gaggle of younger girls. This one is nicely bred and should go into the back end of Quartets.

Race 4, the second leg of the Pick 6 and the first of the Jackpot, offers up Chatuchak as another potential banker – and a candidate for best bet of the day.

Andre Nel, private trainer to Sabine Plattner, has bounced back to form after a quiet period and must be followed in the next few weeks. He gave Chatuchak a short sprint debut in July 2017 and the colt did fairly well to finish fourth after a bumpy start. A five-month break followed and this son of Tiger Ridge stepped out on New Year’s Day and was beaten a short-head over 1250m at Durbanville. A 1400m follow-up saw another narrow defeat.

This is his peak run and with Richard Fourie aboard from the No 5 stall he is a confident selection.

Sark, American Landing and African Messiah look the main dangers.