Zena Rose to glitter at KZN’s Greyville

Racing is on the Polytrack at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Tuesday and there could be a couple of decent bets in the offing.

There was once a good bit of advice offered by a bookmaker that one should only take odds-on about a horse if it is a good and reliable performer and not because it looks the best horse in a very weak field.

Overall, that is sage advice but there are times where once just needs to bite the bullet and go for it and that looks to be the case with Zena Rose in Race 2, a Conditional Maiden for fillies and mares over 1400m.

A quick glance at the form of this Duncan Howells-trained three-year-old daughter of Horizon might give one cause for concern as she has raced six times for two places. However, closer scrutiny of her runs reveals a lot more.

Her first two runs over 1200m at HWB Scottsville were poor but she kept giving her opposition starts. Then she did the same in her next outing but that was over 1400m, and she did make up ground before staying on to finish fifth, just 2.25 lengths behind Blind Speed.

Her next run was over 1600m on the Greyville turf where she again lost ground at the start but produced the fastest final 400m to run a 2.45-length third to Greenlitealltheway. Howells tried her in blinkers the next time and this time she got out like a bullet but tore off to the front and ran out of steam.

Last time though, with the blinkers now removed she bounced back with a good third behind decent types Happy Fortune and subsequent easy winner Woza Nawe.

ALSO READ: Heather’s Boy takes on One Stripe at Cape Guineas

With the speed she shows she looks well suited to the Polytrack. The one concern is that as this is a Conditional Maiden, she will give weight to her seven rivals. But she appears head-and-shoulders above horses such as five-year-old maiden Head Girl and Fantasy League and from No 1 draw she has everything going for her.

Kabelo Matsunyane rode her last time and he is back in the irons once again.

Faire Advantage showed his local debut win was no fluke when he followed up in comfortable fashion, and he could make it three out of three on the Polytrack.

Trained by Andre Nel, Faire Advantage lines up in Race 5, a MR 74 Handicap over 1600m.

The six-year-old gelding has been racing in Cape Town where he notched up two wins early in his career. Nel obviously felt his charge would be better served by racing in KwaZulu-Natal and probably had a good idea about how he would fare on the Polytrack.

After his debut run in the province at Scottsville where he finished sixth over 1750m, Nel took him off to the Greyville Polytrack where he went on to score two facile wins, both over 1600m. In both his runs he has come from off the pace to win going away, which is not easy on this surface, and it doesn’t look like he will be stopping soon.

ALSO READ: It’s all in the Crawford family

Granted, he carried less weight in that first win but made most of that field look ordinary by the dominance of his finish, and in his last win, he carried top weight but still won as he liked. His merit rating has gone up eight points but that may be lenient as he still races in the lower league and while 4kg worse off with National Award for 4.50 lengths beating, he still should be too good, so he rates a banker in all bets.

Calvin Habib rode him on the first occasion while Rachel Venniker was aboard last time, however, it will be Habib back in the irons on his third visit.