Starting Star. Warpath cruises in at her first outing
Trainer Charles Laird and jockey Anton Marcus could provide the Joostes with a 2yo feature double at Clairwood on Sunday. The Gr3 Strelitzia Stakes and the Gr3 Godolphin Barb are worth R150 000 apiece, and barring the unforseen, they look theirs for the banking.
The Captain Al filly Warpath found herself the unwitting centre of a newsmaking storm when making her debut in the NBT Kings Pact Stakes run at the same venue on 17 March. She duly won that race in good style, but it was a hollow victory as most of the field were not ridden all the way, and the favourite My Sanctuary suffered the worst. How can we forget? It was the day of the astounding start debacle.
Warpath faces seven opponents, only two of which have won a race, in the Gr3 Strelitzia Stakes, which is run over 100m further.
Gavin Van Zyl’s Princess Julietta showed good pace when winning her third start over the Clairwood 1200m, beating Surefire by 6,75 lengths.
The Mike Miller yard have had a few winners recently, and they team up with Alec Forbes with the very fast Ravishing Gem, who won readily at her second start beating Caribbean Bay by 0,25 lengths.
The rest are maidens, although Corne Spies’ Sioux She is possibly worth taking note of. She ran an excellent third just over two lengths behind Arcetri Pink in last Saturday’s Gr3 Pretty Polly Stakes. The daughter of Ahaawes receives 2kgs from War Path, and may be worth including, assuming she has travelled well and has recovered from that run.
On The Warpath? Anton Marcus may pay to follow at Clairwood on Sunday
The Gr3 Godolphin Barb Stakes is the boys’ equivalent, and here the promising Var colt Normanz looks the right one.
Rumoured to be a top sort from way before making his debut, Normanz won a cracker at his second outing when bursting clear to beat Spritzer by three lengths.
Normanz has most to fear Vaughan Marshall’s Ace Antonius who made a winning debut in his hometown in the middle of January. It is true that the Marshall string have appeared to need their first run in KZN, and if that is the case in this instance, then he may battle to go with Normanz.
Emperor Niarchos hails from the Frank Robinson yard, and this son of Miesque’s Approval ran fourth in the Sentinel Stakes after winning on debut over 1000m at Clairwood.
Duncan Howell’s Fly At Em looks to hold the Robinson runner on their Sentinel Stakes run, where he finished 2,25 lengths in front of them.
Doug Campbell’s New Sensation also looks well held on his Sentinel Stakes effort.
Watch the betting on the well bred first timers!
The Pick Six looks tough beyond these two races. Let’s put our heads down and banker Superman in both the baby features.
