Patchit Up Baby can add to Lerena’s tally

Gavin Lerena has been in unstoppable form of late and it is always a good move for punters to follow guys who are churning out winners.

Lerena, who is chasing his sec­ond jockey’s championship title, rode four winners at Turffontein on Tuesday night and has a fist­ful of great rides at Fairview today and Turffontein tomorrow, when they race on the Inside track.

Well-bred first-timer Girl With Ambition in Race 1, Brazuca in Race 2, Rights Of Man in race 4, Street Gaze in Race 5 and Pagoda in Race 8 all have excellent win­ning prospects but the cherry on the top could come in Race 7, the Allez France Stakes (Non- Black Type) for fillies and mares over 2200m, where Lerena rides Patchit Up Baby for trainer Or­mond Ferraris.

She has run against some of the best of her sex in the country and is always competitive. Even when beaten she rarely finishes far be­hind the winner.

She finally earned her first win since joining Ferraris when beat­ing Fort Ember over 1800m on the Standside track in December and last time out needed just one more stride to get the better of Coby over 2450m on the same course.

She has only had one run at this course and it was in this race last year in which she finished a two-length second behind Kissimmee. Lerena rode her on that occasion and she is tipped to go one better.

Cidada is beautifully bred and the daughter of Galileo seems to be improving with each run. She has only raced six times for two wins and four places and her vic­tories have come in two of her last three starts.

She has run twice at this track, finishing fourth behind Tam­balang and a 5.75-length second behind Smiling Blue Eyes but they were earlier in her career and Alec Laird’s charge has improved immensely since then.

She has won over 2000m so this extra 200m is unlikely to af­fect her and she is nicely drawn at No 2. Apprentice Calvin Ngcobo has ridden her in all but one of her starts, and he is back aboard.

Parisienne Chic is an interest­ing runner. St John Gray’s charge has found form and won her last two starts, by around 0.50 lengths. But the runners-up were flattered by their proximity to her. This race will test how good she really is.