King’s Temptress – SA Fillies Nursery winner vastly improved last time
There will be no excuses for Vaughan Marshall’s very talented grey daughter of Captain Al, All Is Secret, when she jumps from a good draw in the R500 000 Gr1 Thekwini Stakes.
Corne Spies’ Straight Set beat the Marshall grey convincingly in the Golden Slipper on July day, and the daughter of Victory Moon will be out to prove that the formline was full of merit.
The Gr1 Golden Slipper holds the solution to the outcome of this fascinating contest,and after Alan Robertson winner All Is Secret came unstuck from an 11 draw on July day, she has a great chance to set the record straight and regain her champion status and magical mantle here.
But Anton Marcus will have to call on all his skills to get her to make up that 5,60 length deficit on the very classy Straight Set.
Straight Set looks well poised to register her first Gr1 victory
Competitive
The Golden Slipper winner Rumya is a conspicuous absentee in Saturday’s race, but her non participation means that this event takes on a competitive dimension with chances to a few. Straight Set finished within 0,75 lengths of Rumya, and with King’s Temptress and Fire Wheel a further 3,75 and 5,50 lengths further back respectively.
Top jockey Jeff Lloyd did everything required when riding Straight Set in the Golden Slipper, but on the day the De Kock filly was just too good for the whole lot of them.
Despite hanging late, she looked to have poached a winning lead into the final 300m, and was only caught late by what, in time, should turn out to be a top-class sort.
Straight Set had shown her outstanding ability with a breathtaking run behind Potent Power in the Gold Medallion, when flying late to run second and in the process beating a host of promising young males. While the family on the dam side
has only won over sprints, the Elliodor influence should give her the legs for this mile, and she did win her maiden over 1400m at Turffontein.
No excuses for Vaughan Marshall’s All Is Secret, when she jumps from a good draw
No Secret
Trainer Vaughan Marshall expressed reservations about All Is Secret’s poor draw on July day, but despite Anton Marcus doing a top-class job in getting her over and into a winning position, she appeared to throw in the towel rather tamely when the chips were down in the final 200m. She has earned a second chance from a 2 draw here though, and only needs to reproduce her Alan Robertson effort to pose a huge threat to the three that beat her there.
We are on record as suggesting that shock SA Fillies Nursery winner King’s Temptress redeemed herself in no small measure with a fast-finishing fourth in the Golden Slipper, and this daughter Of King Of Kings should be infinitely better for the experience of that outing. She looked as green as an avocado there and was also cut into on the off-hind. Apprentice Nuresh Juglall, who only turned 21 on Sunday, will know better what to expect and will be hungry to end his promising season on a high.
High Promise
Piere Strydom rode Dylan’s Promise for Charles Laird to a no-show 12,60 lengths behind Rumya in the Golden Slipper. She has drawn widest at 11 here, and while she should enjoy the extra 200m of this race, we tend to prefer the chances of Strydom’s new mount, Fire Wheel.
Sean Tarry’s Black Minnaloushe looked something really special when winning a cracker on debut. She jumped slowly and ran wide before winning the 1600m event by 5,25 lengths in dazzling fashion. Fire Wheel then ran a rather tame 5,10 lengths off Dylan’s Promise in the Devon Air, but showed that run to be all wrong when running on late for fifth in the Golden Slipper. She was cramped late in the race there and finished only 6,25 lengths behind the grey De Kock flyer. She has won over a mile, and we all know what Tarry and Strydom are capable of. She is not drawn well again, but include her in all calculations!
Hitch A Ride
Joey Ramsden and Glen Hatt team up with the well-drawn Spectrum filly Careful Hiker who won at her second start over the Durbanville 1400m, but is a rather difficult contestant to guage here. She only just got up after being slow away to beat a rather moderate older sort in Eden Rose, but we well know that Ramsden doesn’t race them to fill fields.
Joe Soma’s Toreador filly Senorita Casey never showed at her last start over the Turffontein 1400m, and has her first run at Greyville. She will need to up her game dramatically, to have a shout here.
Ivan Moore’s beautifully-bred Boogie With Cher won readily at her second outing but is poorly drawn and will have to improve on her last start when showing no punch behind Murmering Sky.
Fast Jet, Straight Set’s stablemate Five Rings and Tony Rivalland’s Tappin The Stars are still maidens and would be a shock winners. Of the three, the tough cookie Five Rings is probably the most likely to run a place. A very experienced girl who has run eleven times in five months and always pays her way, she has a top jockey in Kevin Shea and the 1 draw in her favour. She travelled halfway across Africa to Flamingo Park just under a fortnight ago, when running third in the Kimberley Nursery to the boys, and is over that safari, we can be sure that she will be very fit at this her first KZN start. An intriguing race.
Straight Set looks well poised to register her first Gr1 victory, and we expect her to do so at the expense of the revitalised King’s Temptress, with All Is Secret and Fire Wheel fighting over the scraps. And many questions will be answered in the process.
