Improver. The Justin Snaith-trained Intimate Touch looks likely to improve from a good draw
The game and consistent Var filly The Magic Kingdom gets a perfect opportunity to register a long overdue second victory when she contests the R90 000 non black-type Aloe Handicap run over 1300m at Arlington on Friday.
Alan Greef has a strong hand in the twelve horse field with a three way coupling headed by The Magic Kingdom. Greeff’s lightly weighted Between The Covers must also come into the reckoning.
Well drawn at 1 and with regular pilot MJ Byleveld in the saddle, this could well be The Magic Kingdom’s for the taking.
Super Second
The daughter of Var won first time out over the Arlington 1000m, and has run five seconds in her subsequent ten outings. These include a great run in the Guineas Plate in November when she went down narrowly to Break Of Dawn. The Magic Kingdom ran slightly below par last time when finishing a 2,75 length fourth to Aspen Angle over the Fairview 1200m.
In her defence, she was reported coughing there, and could bounce back here.
The Magic Kingdom is 2,5kgs better off with Break Of Dawn for that narrow defeat in the Guineas Plate.
Break Of Dawn ran a disappointing race in the Lady’s Bracelet and her wide draw that afternoon, may well have affected her chances. The Van Rensburg filly will have to pick up her feet to get the better of The Magic Kingdom on the weight turnaround.
Touch Much
Justin Snaith and Muzi Yeni team up with another well drawn sort in the King Of Kings filly Intimate Touch, who has her third PE start.
Intimate Touch shed her maiden at her fifth start over the Durbanville 1000m,a nd then followed up with a promising second t Victory Express. She appears to have lost her way a little since then, but is a possible improver at her first outing beyond 1200m.
The highest rated filly in the race is the Albert Hall three-time winner, Deepo.
Gavin Smith engages jockey Aldo Domeyer who achieved a genuine hat-trick on her in early 2012. This included an outstanding win in the Listed Lady’s Slipper in mid June. Deepo has lost the plot since and failed dismally in four starts, and will need to find a semblance of her juvenile best to have a say in this contest.
Tara Laing’s Tudor Star won earlier this week at this track when beating Lunar Landing by a half length in a lowly-rated MR 66 fillies and mares handicap over 1400m. If she runs, she must come out fit but has a tough outside draw to overcome.
Sham Trio
The Shams send out a three-way coupling of Oh So Easy, Dreamwalker and Kiss From A Rose.
Oh So Easy has won twice from 15 starts, but has shown a steady decline in form since her last win five months ago. She did not run a bad race in the Guineas Plate when finishing 3,50 lengths behind Break Of Dawn when conceding 2kgs. On that level of effort, she could be a place contender.
Dreamwalker took 15 runs to shed her maiden, but to put this into perspective, achieved the victory at only her second PE start after a low-key start to her racing career in the Western Cape.
Kiss From A Rose has not won in a year, but showed a glimmer of something last time out.
She ran third to Aspen Angle in a Novice Plate over the Fairview 1200m, and finished a length in front of The Magic Kingdom, in receipt of 3kgs. Kiss From A Rose is 1,5kgs better off here, and could thus technically hold our fancy. She would need to confirm that form as being of a non flash-in-the-pan nature, though.
Greeff Cover
Alan Greeff’s other two are Iamtheone and Between The Covers.
Iamtheone is a lightly raced winner of 1 of 5 starts and gets the blinkers for the first time.
Between The Covers meets The Magic Kingdom on 2kgs better terms after beating her by 2,25 lengths in that Aspen Angle Novice Plate. That makes her a runner, and if we consider that she is 7 kgs better off with Break Of Dawn for a 3,25 length defeat in the Guineas Plate, then she could be something of a value horse here.
The rest make little appeal.
Aloe Aloe
The Magic Kingdom makes the most appeal from a good draw and is a fit filly, who seems a touch better than a one-time winner at this stage.
We are going with her to beat Break Of Dawn, with Between The Covers and Intimate Touch making up the quartet money.
