Piper to call the tune

There appears to be big money in the exotics at the Vaal tomorrow but if you are going to catch them you will need both luck and the odd banker.

The best of these looks to be Joey Piper in Race 8, a MR 80 Handicap over 1200m on the Inside track. This son of Argonaut looks to be well above average and there was a lot to like in the manner of his last win where he destroyed Heywot by 4.10 lengths in a MR 72 handicap over this course and distance.

That win came after a rest in which he was gelded and it is clear Paul Peter’s charge has improved extraordinarily since that operation which makes all males wince at the thought. The handicappers also loved that run and penalised him 4kg for the victory. Nevertheless, his time of 69.56sec is quicker than the average for this class of runner so there has to be a lot more to come. In any case, if you want to take on the best you have to be adventurous and Peter has never been scared of rising to the challenge.

He carried 60kg when winning last time and although racing against stronger, he only carries 0.5kg more which means he should still be able to put up the same sort of time.

Anthony Delpech was in the irons last time and it is good to note he takes the ride again. Anton Marcus makes the journey to the Vaal and when he does come up he rarely goes home without a winner. He is specifically riding horses from the Joe Soma yard and all four are owned by Mayfair Speculators.

His runners come up in Races 2, 3, 8 and 9 and it would be wise to keep an eye on the betting, especially the two early events where both runners are making having their first runs. In Race 2 he is aboard Quality Curves who is a daughter of Curved Ball, but there is some decent opposition among the unraced runners, especially Mohallela from the Mike de Kock yard who is an Australian-bred daughter of Exceed And Excel and owned by Sheikh Hamden bin Rashid al Maktoum.

In Race 3 Marcus rides Lobo’s Legend, who is by Trippi out of a Western Winter mare. The mare has not produced anything of note so far but this is the first time she has been mated with Trippi so that could be a revelation.