Trip Of Fortune tops boards for super-tight Cape Guineas

The Grade 1 Cape Guineas to be run at Kenilworth on Saturday looks a wide-open battle if the betting is anything to go by. And a perusal of the form for the prestigious race confirms that there’s little to choose between many leading candidates.

A ream of collateral form is available to scrutinize, but it’ll be hard work for punters to unscramble it and trim choices to a workable short list.

Trip Of Fortune from the Candice Bass-Robinson stable currently tops the bookmakers’ betting boards, just above the Dean Kannemeyer-trained duo of Cosmic Highway and Waterberry Lane.

At least a further eight runners have persuasive cases for consideration and big odds swings are possible in the run-up to the bell at 4.10pm on Saturday.

The competitiveness of the R750,000 1600m contest suggests a high- quality renewal – and indeed it is in terms of the Western Cape three-year-old crop. However, one suspects that a few comparable horses will be quietly idling their time away in boxes in Joburg and Durban.

The sole visitor is Marigold Hotel from Sean Tarry’s Randjesfontein yard – who opened up at 20-1 for the first leg of the SA Triple Crown.

BETTING

Grade 1 Cape Guineas, R750,000, 1600m

7-2 Trip Of Fortune

5-1 Cosmic Highway

6-1 Waterberry Lane

8-1 Good Traveller

10-1 Zapatillas, Double Superlative

12-1 Pomp And Power, Pacaya

13-1 Universal

20-1 Marigold Hotel

25-1 Xavion, Never Ending Rain

40-1 Bush Tracker

50-1 Chollima, Mr Master Starter

70-1 Surjay