Maestro trainer Mike Bass has three runners in the Gr 1s at Scottsville’s Festival Of Speed meeting on Saturday and they are all capable of earning cheques.

Fly By Night (Liesl King)

Assistant trainer Robert Fayd’Herbe said, “Ernie is doing okay, he has a low weight and we’re taking our chances. This is his best trip. Lanner Facon is versatile, but 1200-1400m is probably her best range and she will be running on. Fly By Night always runs well in this race and we’re hoping she has one more in her. Both of the mares are doing well, but everyone’s running for second in that race behind Carry On Alice.”

Elusive Fort three-year-old gelding Ernie has scraped into the handicap in the Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Sprint with the minimum weight of 52kg. He is 3,5kg better off with Captain Alfredo for a 4,75 length defeat in the In Full Flight Handicap over 1100m at Scottsville, which was run on May 1, so will have his work cut out to reverse the form. However, that race was run in officially “very soft” going, so the margins might have been exaggerated, and this is also Ernie’s third run after a layoff. He is drawn six with Grant van Niekerk up.

Five-year-old Trippi mare Lanner Falcon has blossomed into a consistent sort and off 107 is the second highest merit rated runner in the weight for age City Of Pietermaritzburg Fillies Sprint, although that is still seven points lower than Carry On Alice’s rating. The athletic chestnut showed her class over this trip when beating the boys in the Gr 2 Khaya Stables Diadem Stakes at Kenilworth on December 27.

Six-year-old Jet Master mare Fly By Night finished a 1,5 length second in the Diadem and is now 2kg better off with Lanner Falcon, so could get closer on paper if reproducing that run. A further plus is her excellent record in the City Of Pietermaritzburg Fillies Sprint (formerly known as the SA Fillies Sprint), having been touched off by the brilliant Via Africa two years ago and then finishing a 1,8 length third behind two high class sprinters in Carry On Alice and Alboran Sea last year. However, she has become unpredictable and has to make up 5,8 lengths on Lanner Falcon from their recent meeting in the Gr 3 Poinsettia over the City Of Pietermaritzburg course and distance.

Lanner Falcon is drawn two with stable jockey Van Niekerk up and Fly By Night is drawn ten with MJ Byleveld aboard.

By David Thiselton