Punters who were anticipating top quality racing got just what they were hoping for from strong cards in both Durban and Johannesburg. Followers of this newsletter know that speed figures above 108 are achieved only in exceptional cases – often Grade 1’s in SA can be won by older horses with lesser scores of around 105.

Three races over the weekend exceeded that high threshold as Hawwaam (speed figure of 113 in the Champion’s Challenge) Pacific Trader (s/s 111 in the Computaform Sprint) and Twist of Fate (s/s 109 KRA Guineas) performed with distinction across the distance spectrum.

Mike de Kock’s, Haawwaam got a glowing write up after his SA Classic demolition job, when scoring 116. He was the victim of a terribly rough trip when accidently suffering his only defeat behind potent miler National Park in the Gauteng Guineas and will be hard to topple over middle distances in SA if running figs in the range between 113 and 116.

His previous conqueror, National Park tried hard from an awkward draw at Greyville to repeat that Guineas win by making an early move but was outrun late by Joey Ramsden’s high -class Twist of Fate (s/s 109) who enjoyed the run of the race. The flow of a race and circumstances play a big role in turf outcomes – poorly drawn off- pace closer and favourite, Soqrat had no chance of winning the way the KRA Guineas was run, doing well to close ground in deep stretch and belatedly get within a couple of lengths at the wire.

Remarkably, a full field in the G1 Computaform Sprint only featured a couple of genuine speedballs, as the majority of the runners preferred style is to sit off the pace before challenging. This unusual pace set up over the quick Turffontein 1000m played perfectly into the hands of Pacific Trader (s/s 111) and Princess Rebel (s/s 110) who dominated from the jump.

Plaudits for a fine training feat by Brett Crawford and his team to cleverly target this specific race months ago for Pacific Trader and get the son of Sail from Seattle primed for the raid. PE trainer Yvette Bremner is also adept at travelling her horses – though Princess Rebel and National Park (s/s 108) went down narrowly, they both ran bravely and recorded big figures in their respective races.