Roll the Dyce yet again

There were sighs of relief all around when Dyce came back to his best with a victory in a Pinnacle Stakes over 1000m on the Turffontein Inside track last time out.

After winning the Grade 1 Cape Flying Championships at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth in January, this Lucky Houdalakis-trained gelding just seemed to lose the plot. He finished unplaced in both the Grade 3 JJ The Jet Plane Stakes over 1000m up the Turffontein straight and then the Grade 1 Computaform Sprint over the same distance.

The decision was taken to geld him and he made his return in the Grade 1 Golden Horse Sprint over 1200m at Hollywoodbets Scottsville in June. Once again, Dyce failed to show his best and ended up in ninth place behind Thunderstruck.

Houdalakis knew that Dyce should not be putting these sorts of performances, and as the old Nat King Cole song goes, he chose to pick himself up, dust himself off, and start all over again.

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We didn’t see Dyce in action for three-and-a-half months and when he made his return midway through September, everybody was waiting with baited breath to see how he would perform. Piere Strydom, who had ridden him at Scottsville, was back in the irons again and to the relief of all his fans, the real Dyce turned up. In spite of casting a shoe in running, he still managed to beat Rulership by 0.75 lengths.

Dyce and Strydom will be back in action at the Vaal on Tuesday in another Pinnacle Stakes, this time over 1100m. He carries the same weight as last time, he drops in class and with Strydom back in the irons, Dyce should reel off another confidence boosting triumph.

Muzi Yeni is another jockey in fine form and he can get punters off to a winning start at the meeting where he rides improving Mizzen Sword in Race 1, a Maiden Plate for three-year-olds over 1200m.

With it being the same course and distance over which he finished third 19 days ago, Mark Khan’s charge is open to further progress in his peak outing.

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St John Gray’s lightly raced Secret Chord has forged a formidable partnership with Yeni, under whom he has run his best races. In six starts together, the Bezrin gelding has won twice and finished second twice, not finishing worse than fourth under the diminutive lightweight rider. Yeni rode Secret Chord to finish fourth over 1100m on this course last time and reverting to 1000m in Race 5 could bring about a return to winning ways for the combination.

Race 2 is an interesting Novice Handicap over 1400m and there are some decent runners taking their places in this line-up. It is not an easy race to decipher but perhaps Tony Peter-trained Gimmeachoice could be the right one. He is a lightly raced four-year-old and has been placing over longer distances.

The drop in trip and this faster-run 1400m up the straight could be just what he needs. Calvin Habib takes the ride.

Yeni steered Paul Matchett-trained filly Pearl In Her Crown to an impressive comeback win over 1400m at the Vereeniging-based track on her seasonal debut and she lines up over the track and Yeni, unsurprisingly, retains the partnership.

This daughter of Soqrat could hardly have been more impressive, winning unextended by five lengths, beating male opposition in the process.

She takes on the boys again but is a progressive type with the scope to improve throughout a promising three-year-old campaign so it should pay to follow her progress under 55kg.

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