The Gr2 SA Nursery opens the projected R5 million Pick 6 at Turffontein today. Frosted Gold and Twilight Moon have the feature credentials to fight it out – but it’s a bit trickier than that.
Given the quality of the racing and the fact that it is a standalone meeting, we feel the Pick 6 gets closer to R6 million. Punters will be weighing in with a popular banker like Hawwaam – even though plenty of the other legs are tricky.
This Nursery produced an upset last year with William The Silent dropping out of the blue at 45-1 to set up a major Pick 6 dividend!
A winner of the Storm Bird Stakes and the Protea Stakes, Wylie Hall flagbearer Twilight Moon looks another exciting 2yo from the Paul Matchett yard this term. He beat Mike de Kock’s handsome grey Frosted Gold 1,25 lengths last time but now meets the Kiwi bred colt on 2kgs worse terms – in other words, at level weights this time.
That throws a spanner in the works with Anton Marcus taking over the reins from Gavin Lerena on the grey.
Mike de Kock has some nice runners today
But another interesting runner is the Mike de Kock stablemate Battleoftrafalgar – a son of Captain Al out of the top-class Cape Fillies Guineas winner Gibraltar Blue. While Pick 6 players won’t be fazed – protected as they are by the first timer rule – the stable comment of ‘has ability but strong field’ suggests he can place.
The top rate, albeit naughty, filly Cloth Of Cloud won this race in 2016 and it is interesting to see the astute Paul Peter trying his luck with the only filly, in the dual winner Sarah. She gets a 2,5kg sex allowance and faces her first test in mixed company.
If you don’t trust the top two, it’s probably safer to go wider and include Got The Greenlight and the Hollywood Syndicate’s Look To The Sky, who was disappointing last time after showing promise.
