Prince Andrew. Fortune is back in town and riding winners.
We are often told that field size equates directly to improved betting turnover. If that be true, the structure of the Kimberley racecard on Monday 8 August is puzzling. The first two races should surely have been incorporated into the Place Accumulator and Pick Six by possibly switching them with the small fields of the carded third and fourth races?
If they can come up with innovation and novelties when it comes to six tote places and all-to-come bets on the July and the Gold Cup, then there can be no excuse for Saftote and the racing operators not having a rethink on Flamingo Park. The overriding factor is the numeric dominance of the Shaun Miller stable and the couplings that make the Flamingo Park Pick Six bet a little lacklustre for punters.
Good luck to Shaun Miller. He trained four winners on the day, two of which were for Ingrid and Markus Jooste. Not only does he enjoy the support of South Africa’s leading and most influential owner partnership, but he also benefits by a sponsorship courtesy of the operator –owned Betting World. Nobody is suggesting that the Competitions Board should take a look at this overwhelming favouritism but at least let’s sort out these imbalances, that may well irk his colleagues, so that they do not adversely affect the punters.
Miller had eight runners in the fourteen horse eighth race which contributed to reducing the possible Pick Six combinations to the nett effect of a five horse field. To add insult to injury, punters got burnt when the Miller coupling went astray as Vernon Rugg’s game warrior Hunters Green showed he is on course for the Recall Security Flamingo Mile at month end, when he got the better of Andrew Fortune and Comedy Caravan.
Then the structure of the day’s programme also needs to be looked at. We realise that as ridiculous as it may sound, the moving of starting stalls from the straight track to the turn and vice versa probably needs to be considered. But it should not be a serious factor when considering which races should be incorporated into the exotics. The first four races today were sprints. The first two were around the turn and the third and fourth were up the straight. The fifth race was a mile event. The first two races had sixteen and fifteen horses carded, as opposed to the eight and nine horses of the third and fourth races respectively. Any additional incentive to the punter should be seriously considered and these four races should surely have been switched around once the final card was configured by the National Racing Bureau?
One wonders whether anybody in authority is even aware of this anomaly and the bottom line is that the operator cannot win. The punter must be the winner. Poor exotic dividends in a fractional environment are an anti-climax. It could be argued that the Jackpot is a great alternative to the Pick Six. The Jackpot paid R13 500 today against the R672 of the Pick Six. The pool of the latter was R180 000 more than the former. The Phumelela Marketing manager tells us that they talk to their customers. Nobody has spoken to anybody in our local.
Flamingo Double. Andrew Fortune rode two winners for Shaun Miller.
Andrew Fortune was the most successful rider on the day with a well-taken double for Miller. The mercurial Fortune’s last meeting before his return to action at Kimberley after a five week break was on Vodacom Durban July day where he had experienced mixed fortunes and the highs and lows of this tough game. He had ridden the brilliant two year old filly Princess Victoria to an easy win in the Gr1 Golden Slipper and then partnered the ill-fated Big City Life to sixth place in the July.
Both of Fortune’s winning rides were switches, doubtless for weight reasons, with his colleague Gunter Wrogemann. Fortune was obviously enjoying the quirk of luck in his favour and joked that he had to pay for his ‘four kids and fifty-five women’ somehow. Wrogemann thankfully got one home in the final event where he steered the vastly improved Takeover to yet another easy victory. She is the most improved horse in training, having won her last two races by almost twenty lengths in total.
