Soma and Yeni have more winning options at the Vaal

Trainer Joe Soma and jockey Muzi Yeni came away with a double at Saturday’s Turffontein meeting and can carry on where they left off at the Vaal on Tuesday.

Yeni really had to earn his fee to bring home Fiery Pegasus in the Race 1 and then demonstrated the talents of Back In Business when squeezing through on the outside and flying up to catch Cliff Hanger who had escaped the field to win the Listed Betway Spring Spree Stakes over 1200m by 1.80 lengths.

Never change a winning team is the motto of most top coaches and that could prove the case at the Vaal on Tuesday where there is a seven-race card.

As was the case on Saturday, the Soma and Yeni combination can get punters under way when Serrano lines up in Race 1, a Maiden Plate over the straight 1400m. The three-year-old son of Buffalo Bill Cody has raced four times and has placed in all of them. He ran third in the first three and then, tried over 1700m for the first, got caught late in the race, going down 0.75 lengths to I Belong.

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He probably found the trip a touch too far at this stage of his career and looks likely to benefit from the drop to 1400m. Interestingly, all of his other races have been around the turn and this time he will be racing up the straight.

Outside draws tend to be better in these races and he will jump from barrier No 5 but Yeni, who rode him in his second and third outings, will no doubt move him out at the earliest opportunity if that is the case.

The other item to take note of is that Serrano was raced with a tongue tie last time which seemed to help his cause.

This is not the weakest field ever assembled and there are a number of runners who could show drastic improvement following some decent debut runs – Yukon and Pyro Edition in particular.

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The other race that could bring success to the Soma and Yeni partnership is Race 4, a MR 71 Handicap for fillies and mares over 2400m. They have Damova, a now six-year-old mare, who has only had 18 races in her career. Her merit rating has been dropping slowly and she could now be competitive in this event.

What is important is that if one goes back a couple of years she had two races over 2400m finished second on one occasion. She has been showing some good form lately and now looks ready to pick up another victory.