Racing Express, Friday 25 March 2022: Peter is on the charge

Trainer Paul Peter is having an outstanding season and as we approach the final four months of the 2021/22 season he is within striking distance of Justin Snaith. At the time of writing Peter is just R256,463 behind Snaith and if one takes out the restricted stakes, that is down further to R225,462.

Snaith will not be bringing a string up to Joburg for the Autumn season although he is likely to carry out the odd raid from Durban, especially for a race like the Grade 1 Computaform Sprint where Rio Querari is the defending champion.

That should give Peter further opportunity to narrow the gap and if things go to plan at Turffontein on Saturday, he could even edge ahead. It is also a great card for bettors as there is a R500,000 Pick 6 carryover at the meeting with the pool expected to reach R3million.

For the full version of Friday’s Racing Express, as found in The Citizen, click here.

The Grade 2 Colorado King Stakes over 2000m on the Standside track has a stake of R400,000 with a winning cheque of R250,000. There are also two Grade 3 races for two-year-olds with the Protea Stakes paying out prizemoney of R156,500 to the winner while R125,000 will be passed onto the connections of the first filly past the post in the Pretty Polly Stakes.

Peter has some very competitive runners in all these races and, in fact, has 12 lively runners carded to race at the meeting. Shangani is his contender in the Colorado King Stakes and is an interesting runner. He has only raced seven times but has won five of those and finished third in his other two.

The only concern is that when a horse is put over long distances from his third start with great success, that horse has to be an out-and-out stayer. However, trainer Peter rates this gelding highly and Shangani does have log-leading jockey Warren Kennedy in the irons. He was a runaway winner of his last start over 2400m at Turffontein and this improving son of Soft Falling Rain has to be a major runner.

Under the race conditions, fillies and mares receive a 2.5kg allowance and that puts Mike de Kock-trained Sparkling Water strongly into the mix.

The four-year-old daughter of Silvano has come into her own in no uncertain manner this season and has won four of her five starts. Her lone defeat came in the Summer Cup where she landed the widest of draws and ended up too far back. But she did produce the fastest 400m to finish to make up some 10 lengths in the straight and end up just 4.50 lengths off the win-ner.

Since then, she has gone on to win over two more races, but over 2400m and 2800m respectively, so she will be coming down in distance.

Turffontein is a tough 2000m though, and if there is a lot of rain, which has been commonplace this summer, it will make the track even more testing. Also, she is reunited with jockey S’manga Khumalo who is undefeated on her.

Zillzaal won the Grade 1 Summer Cup over this course and distance in 2019 and despite his up-and-down form since then, he bounced back to his best last time to win the Listed Drum Star Handicap over 1800m at Turffontein most convincingly. He received a 2kg penalty for that win but still comes into this race as the best weighted runner, so if he is back to his best form, this Sean Tarry-trained six-year-old gelding could be the one they will all have to beat.

Others to consider are Second Base, Majestic Mozart and Shango.