Justin Snaith
SA Champion trainer Justin Snaith is looking forward to training at Summerveld for the first time and he will despatch a high class 20-strong team at the end of the month, including Vodacom Durban July winner Legislate, Jet Explorer and Cape Derby second and third Dynamic and Arion.
He said: “My horses were all at Clairwood last year when I went to have a good look at Summerveld and I know they have done a lot of work on the place since.
“We are in barns there and that is a big plus because it cuts out all the drafts you get in stables. I know it gets very cold at night but I don’t see that as a problem – you can put blankets on. You just have to be careful with the horses.
“The one thing I do worry about, though, is the horse traffic in the mornings. Apparently there is a queue where the tractor goes and from what I hear it can be a nightmare.”
The champion trainer had the best figures of anybody at Greyville last season. While his July win assured him of being the course’s top trainer he had a strike rate of 26%, a figure bettered by none of the local trainers and only by Dean Kannemeyer (40%) among the visitors.
Joey Ramsden – always a a force in Champions Season
Joey Ramsden has still to finalise the make-up of his Durban contingent but said: “Kingvoldt’s owners are keen for the colt to have a crack at the KRA Guineas on May 2 which is four weeks before the Golden Horse Sprint at Scottsville.”
King Of Pain, winner of last season’s Rising Sun Gold Challenge, has more immediate objectives at Turffontein and Ramsden said: “He goes for the HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut on Saturday week and I might keep him there for the President’s Champions Challenge four weeks later.”
Neill Bruss is to take 13 horses to Durban. The majority are two-year-olds but his string does include Klawervlei Majorca fourth Red Flame.
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