Take Bold Ransom to snatch quick money at the Vaal

The cream of Highveld sprinters are on their way to Scottsville for the weekend’s speed fest, but an impressive field of fast horses nevertheless has been assembled for the topliner at the Vaal racecourse on Thursday.

Eight-time winner Rivarine heads the line-up for Race 7, a Pinnacle Stakes contest over 1000m. The son of Var would not have been out of place in Pietermaritzburg – indeed, his merit rating of 125 matches the three highest-rated runners in Saturday’s 1200m blast.

Yet Rivarine probably won’t win at the Vaal either.

He was returning from a break of almost five months when he tackled the Computaform Sprint on 1 May and finished well downfield at long odds. Mike and Adam Azzie’s seven-year-old warhorse will probably still need this week’s outing to get sharpened up for some of the bigger sprints over winter.

Finishing about 10 lengths in front of Rivarine in the Computaform was MR 110-rated Bold Ransom from Paul Peter’s stable, who raced prominently down the Turffontein straight before running out of steam and finishing 5.75 lengths off rampant Cape Town raider Rio Querari. That was the furthest adrift he had been in 11 races, stretching back nearly a year.

That campaign included four wins and demonstrated that Bold Ransom is fast, tough and ever-willing – qualities that should carry him and champion jockey Warren Kennedy to victory at the Vaal.

The main danger will probably come from Sean Tarry-trained Mombela – who is carded as a reserve runner for the Golden Horse at Scottsville. This guy is all of nine years old but has run only 24 times, so must have had injury problems along the way. That his connections kept him in training is testament to his ability – as is his record of five wins and nine places.

The Azzie team’s second charge, Oravar, is another consistent character and could challenge with only 52kgs to carry, while three-year-old Valyrian King will pack a punch is he isn’t over the top of his form after some hectic racing.

Elsewhere on the card, trainer Roy Magner might do well. His colt Team Gold has strong credentials in the second race, while another juvenile, Retallick, could get the better of elders in the sixth.

SELECTIONS

Race 1:

1 Pick A Lilly, 4 Kissed By Fire, 2 Woman Of Grace, 7 Raising A Storm

Race 2:

2 Team Gold, 4 Bella Chica, 1 Bronco Blitz, 3 Aunt Lizzy

Race 3:

2 Bathing Beauty, 1 Cold Fact, 5 Social Image, 4 On Cue

Race 4:

10 Power Ranger, 1 Grimaldi, 6 Light Warrior, 3 Silly Fella

Race 5:

1 Zeal And Zest, 6 Afraad, 4 Master and Man, 2 Set The Standard

Race 6:

9 Retallick, 2 Marengo, 4 Lagertha, 1 Ace Of Spades

Race 7:

2 Bold Ransom, 4 Mombela, 5 Oravar, 3 Valyrian King

Race 8:

3 Dubawi Princess, 5 Chloris, 13 Now You See Me, 1 Laetitia’s Angel

Pick 6:

1,2,4,5 x 10 x 1,2,4,6 x 1,2,4,5,9 x 2 x 1,3,4,5,10,11,13 (R560)

PA:

1,2,4 x 1,2 x 10 x 1,6 x 2,4,9 x 2 x 3,5,13 (R108)