Mabaya to catch Dadamasi

Goodman Dadamasi will have his work cut out to retain his advantage going into the third and final leg of this season’s Work Riders’ Challenge at Turffontein tomorrow.

Dadamasi holds an 18-point advantage over Chamu Mabaya but the challenger has a far better card of rides based on form and that could put a lot of pressure on Dadamasi if he wants to claim the R20,000 first prize.

Riders score points for their finishing positions and the rider who scores the most points in each of the three legs gets R5,000. The rider who accumulates the most points over all three meetings gets R20,000. The runner- up is given R10,000 and the third rider gets R5,000.

Dadamasi has some reasonable rides on the eight-race card but many of the so-called “gems” on the day have gone his rival.

Mabaya has picked up three rides from the powerful Mike de Kock yard and two of them look particularly hard to beat – Hurricane Lass in Race 3 and Australian-bred Alnasl in Race 8.

Hurricane Lass could not have found a better opportunity to shed her maiden tag than in this 1000m race. She has raced nine times for seven places but in both her starts over 1000m she has finished second – not far behind the winner.

The only threat, on paper at least, Jaunita who has raced against Hurricane Lass twice before. Although De Kock’s horse finished in front of her on two occasions, just 0.15 lengths separated them in their race behind Sibusiso’s Path over 1000m in April.

However, this the first time Hurricane Lass will be tried in blinkers and that could make all the difference.

Alnasl is probably the best bet on the card. She has only raced twice, finishing fifth behind Pretty Penny over 1160m, then touched o 0.30 lengths by Tia. This race is over 1600m, which looks right up her street, and she jumps from barrier No 5 which is also ideal.