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 Catch Twentytwo (s/s 102) with Copper Mountain back in 3rd. Malmoos threw in a rare clunker in the Cape Guineas but apart from that miscue has repeatedly run triple digit speed figures and the son of Captain Al was back on song Saturday.
War of Athena (s/s 100) also got first run on her rival Anything Goes, who gamely tried to make a race of it, yet was ultimately soundly beaten. Malmoos and Anything Goes fill opposite ends of the price spectrum – Paul Matchett’s Act of War filly was a real bargain buy at the 2019 RTR Sale for only R30 000, whilst Malmoos was one of the most expensive at the 2019 National Yearling Sales, going for R4.4 million.
The Joburg weekend program was a quality one with Lady of Steel (by Gimmethegreenlight) (s/s 106) and True To Life (by Duke of Marmalade) in the G3 Tommy Hotspur handicap (s/s 104) running notably powerful numbers. Both are confirmed winners; Lady of Steel has won 6 out of 9 starts including a placing in a G1, whilst True To Life is an adept sprinter that has already won six times. Credit to in-form, trainer JA Janse van Vuuren for optimizing the careers of these two very talented fillies.
The grey flash Anna Capri (s/s 104) is another proven winner. She was odds on favourite at 7/10 to take care of Progress Plate opponents and got the job done. She was made to work hard for the victory though as Rapid Fire (s/s 102) gave stick all the way. Sweet Sensation (s/s 97) completed the trifecta slot.
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