Weekend Highlights

Linebacker scary-good in Derby rout

If ever a horse deserved a breakthrough win, after four consecutive close seconds in feature races, it was Linebacker. And he duly got his just reward in the G1 Cape Derby when comprehensively out-finishing all rivals. Despite being by a speed sire Captain of All, Linebacker proved he loves 2000m, earning an excellent speed

Malmoos and War of Athena prevail in Gauteng 3 year old Classics.

Malmoos (speed figure 102) and War of Athena (s/s 100) won their respective G2 Guineas races at Turffontein to confirm excellent past performances against the best of their contemporaries. The former was well handled by Luke Ferraris in the colts’ version to race handy then, despite hanging, stave off the jinking stretch run of

Tracking outstanding global performances

One of the major developments for modern horseplayers is being able to watch and get a bet on all around the world. This past weekend there was big jump racing in the UK, lucrative prizes in Saudi and G1 fare in Hong Kong to complement the usual local meetings and Australian/Singapore/U.S.A menus. 20/1 shot

Chalk eaters satisfied with Speed Machine and Irish Morning

The strong Guineas meeting that we were looking forward to at Turffontein was postponed till next weekend due to heavy rains, leaving Kenilworth as the stand- alone card. The best two performances were saved till last – Speed Machine (speed figure 97) and Irish Morning (s/s 99) were heavily backed favourites that won Races

Rainbow Bridge outstanding in Cape Town Met

Rainbow Bridge (speed figure 114) added to his excellent record in the Met (won in 2019, 2nd in 2020) by coming from last and overcoming a traffic squeeze to win it again this year. Favoured, Belgarion (s/s 112) had also made a big move from the back of the field and looked a winner

Golden Sixty confirms global status

Second Base came from the back of the field with a smooth run to take the Sea Cottage Stakes, a Grade 3 at Turffontein. He has run as high as 101 before and sidled in with a figure of 96 ++ this time. Other than dipping out in his second career start, behind Copper

Snaffling a bargain…

One of the biggest gambles in racing is buying a horse. It takes a real leap of faith to spend significant sums of loot on an untried yearling based purely on pedigree and appearance/conformation. Buyers with hefty budgets try boost the chances in their favour by focusing only on the best- bred youngsters without

Year begins happily for Running Brave, War of Athena and CatchTwentytwo

Running Brave (speed score 104), War of Athena (s/s 104) and Catch Twentytwo (s/s 101) make it on to our highlights reel for the past weekend, after putting up notable performances at Turffontein. Running Brave is an inexpensive Brave Tin Soldier mare trained now by Frank Bronkhorst. She is a very game pace- forcer

More Xmas cheer for trainer Kannemeyer

Trainer, Dean Kannemeyer won the Cape Guineas for a sixth time last week with Russian Rock and followed up by providing more Xmas cheer to stable supporters in Durban when Mount Anderson (speed score 96) clinched the Xmas Handicap at Greyville on Saturday. It was a tough struggle round the 1600m course before the

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