Highly competitive fields have been received for the two Grade 3 feature events over 2 400m on Derby Day at Scottsville Racecourse in Pietermaritzburg this coming Sunday where close and exciting finishes could be the order of the day.

The Track & Ball Derby and Track & Ball Oaks, both carrying stakes of R300 000, have replaced the former “classic” events at level weights for three-year-olds and are now run as open weight-for-age events over the classic distance and will be run on the inside track at the Pietermaritzburg venue.

The Track & Ball Oaks includes many well-performed runners including the first three across the line in the East Coast Handicap – Deputy Ryder, Gathering Fame and Ma Choix – and weight differentials in Sunday’s race could see a change in their finishing positions among.

The Centenary and Patchit Up Baby, second and third in the Gerald Rosenberg at Turffontein are also among the runners as well at the winner of the Scarlet Lady, Gallica Rose, where Deputy Ryder ran a close second.

The runner that will likely draw the most attention, however, is the Silvano filly Nightingale from the Mike Bass stable than ran second to Bela-Bela in the Daisy Fillies Guineas then finished third behind her again in the Grade 1 Woolavington 2000.

The difficulty with the runners in the Track & Ball Derby is that few of the 14 contestants have recent inspirational form although most have shown top class ability in their careers.

The field includes the six-year-old Captain Al gelding Disco Al that set the class record for 2 400m at Scottsville when winning this race last year but his recent form is less than encouraging while an interesting development in rider selection is that Anton Marcus, regular pilot of the Joey Ramsden-trained Coltrane that has featured in the first three in his last three races, has taken the ride on Disco Al instead.

With no runner from the Sean Tarry stable in the field, S’manga Khumalo has been engaged to ride the British-bred Kingston Mines for the Mike de Kock stable. The five-year-old failed to feature in the recent Lonsdale Stirrup Cup but he had finished in the first three in his two previous feature events in the Cape.

Storm Warning from the Johan Janse van Vuuren stable never featured in the Lonsdale either but had finished third in the Gold Bowl before that while the three-year-olds Cape Speed and Kitty’s Destiny are two of those with the most consistent recent form. There good recent form was, however, established on the polytrack at Greyville over 1 800m and 1 900m.

Two very competitive races appear to be on the cards and close finishes are likely.