Mike Robinson, a training sensation 12 months ago but relatively quiet this term, can strike with Imperial Guard in the Soccer 6 Maiden at Kenilworth tomorrow.

The Philippi trainer had only a tiny string last season and his horses totalled just 51 runs. Yet he won 12 races – a strike rate of 23% – and scored notable victories with Hot Affair and Blarney Bay who he improved out of all recognition.

His reward was a shopping list for yearlings a mile long, and he ended up with more than 30 of them – “83% of my string are two-year-olds,” he says explaining the yard’s change of fortunes this season – just four winners and the strike rate down to 3%. “But Blarney is coming back and I will nominate him [on Wednesday] for a race later this month.”

Robinson is understandably optimistic that Imperial Guard will oblige tomorrow. Karl Neisius’s mount is as short as 6-10 in the Betting World forecast and has repeatedly gone close. “He has been a bit unlucky,” says his trainer. “The softer ground should help. He is a very sound horse but I think he will enjoy the sting out of the ground and I believe I have found the right race for him.”

Justin Snaith has had at least one two-year-old success at each of the last four Cape Town meetings and Star Express ran on like a certain future winner after starting slowly on debut.

“We thought it might be a bit short for her but we were expecting her to run well,” Snaith recalls. “She is a nice little filly and she is all heart.”

The champion trainer believes the change in the going will be in her favour, adding: “My horses are crying out for the soft ground. It was a long summer, too long.”

The one doubt about Star Express – forecast 2-1 favourite -is that her first run was in what now looks a weakish race and therefore 4-1 chance Sails Set gets preference, particularly at the price. Speedball, considered good enough to run in the Perfect Promise, also comes into consideration at 4-1.

Brett Crawford, trainer of Sails Set, may also win the next on the card with 5-1 shot Beyond Limits even though stable jockey Cone Orffer is on newcomer Nebula (4-1) and Snaith’s Overshadow is 5-2 forecast favourite

What Fun, whose saddle slipped in her last race, has the form to win the Cape Town Winter Maiden but punters should note that she missed a subsequent race because of an infection and has been on antibiotics. Sometimes horses run a bit flat after that.

“I put her on them straightaway and I went easy with her,” says Adam Marcus who is confident that she will be fine. “She has come out of it well and she looks fresh and well.”

Even so, Caprice Des Dieux is put forward as an alternative. Marcus’s Charlie Strong (3-1) found 1 400m too short last month and tries a mile in the last but 2-1 favourite Storm Faerie is the pick on form.

By Michael Clower

Picture: Mike Robinson

It is seven years since a Gr 1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge winner went on to win the Vodacom Durban July, but the double could possibly be done again this year as the ruling favourite for the country’s biggest horseracing event, Futura, will be lining up in the Gold Challenge at Greyville on Saturday.

However, this will be the Justin Snaith-trained superstar’s return bout with his new stablemate Legislate, having stolen the latter’s limelight when winning the Gr 1 L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate in early January.

Snaith said about Saturday’s big clash, “Futura has come on lengths from his last run and has put up a very good gallop on the Summerveld grass since. He couldn’t be better and I’m very happy. He’s a very nice natured horse and is a pleasure to train. Legislate also galloped on the grass at Summerveld on Monday. He was blowing a little bit and that’s what we wanted as we hope he comes on from that. It’s hard to be sure whether he will be back to his best, but he’s doing well enough and he likes to run fresh. They are both well and I wouldn’t want to change anything.”

Legislate was thought to be virtually unbeatable in the Queen’s Plate, having broken the Kenilworth 1600m Old Course record when winning the Gr 2 Green Point Stakes in his seasonal reappearance. However, he finished stone last and was subsequently found to have serious lung infection, so has not been seen out again since.

Meanwhile, Futura, still conditioned at that stage by his original trainer Brett Crawford, stamped himself as the best horse in the country by winning the J&B Met.

Later, in one of the shocks of the season, the three-time Gr 1 winning  Dynasty colt left the Crawford yard due to a dispute among the ownership syndicate and joined Snaith.

Crawford had also nurtured Futura to a win in the Gr 1 Champions Cup over 1800m at Greyville in his final start as a three-year-old and that was after some had felt he had been unlucky in the July, having been caught in behind a slow pace.

Futura has everything a top class racehorse needs from a laid back temperament, the ability to relax in the running, a fantastic turn of foot as well as plenty of speed but also the stamina to stay the 2200m of the July. Furthermore, he announced his well-being on May 17 by winning his Champions Season pipe opener over 1600m at Greyville in cosy fashion under his new jockey Sean Cormack.

Legislate, who is also a four-year-old colt by Dynasty, has proved he has all of those credentials himself, having won all of the Gr 1 Investec Cape Derby, the Gr 2 KRA Guineas, the Gr 1 Daily News 2000 and the July last year. The latter three wins proved his liking for Greyville. He won the July last year only after a controversial objection, but he was deservedly named Equus Horse Of The Year. His class, exemplified by his tremendous turn of foot, was then seen at its maximum in the Green Point, where he put up a truly world class performance.

However, the Queen’s Plate run put a dampener on his future. Furthermore, in his intended comeback recently, in the IOS Drill Hall Stakes, he had to be scratched  after kicking the pens. This misfortune and the subsequent trip from the start back to the parade ring apparently took a lot out of him and a couple of days later the Snaith yard declared him a doubtful runner in the July. Snaith said over the weekend that his July participation was still up in the air and advised punters to keep their ante-post betting money in their pockets for now.

The International Federation of Horseracing Authorities had the Gold Challenge as the only South African horseracing event in its world 100 top races recently. The ratings are calculated by averaging the merit of the first four finishers as accorded by the Longines Worlds Best Racehorse Rankings.

Snaith in fact trained the last horse to do the Gold Challenge-July double in the same season. In 2008 his superstar grey filly Dancer’s Daughter quickened superbly off a slow pace to win the Gold Challenge at Clairwood under Weichong Marwing and then ran on strongly under Kevin Shea to dead-heat with the great Pocket Power in one of the most exciting July’s of all time.

Saturday will tell whether Legislate is the same horse he was before the Queen’s Plate. If he is this clash of the Snaith-trained titans could well be the highlight of the season, although it is by no means a two horse race.

By David Thiselton

Picture: Futura (Nkosi Hlophe)

Belmont Stakes (gr. I) hopeful Tale of Verve took to the Belmont Park main track last Saturday to log his final breeze in advance of the $1.5 million race on Saturday, June 6.

With exercise rider Kortez Walker up for the work, the son of Tale of Ekati ran five furlongs in 59.02sec, the fastest work of 23 at the distance. “He galloped out good and came back blowing, which is good, because it means he got something out of it,” said Dallas Stewart, who trains Tale of Verve for Charles Fipke. “He came back great and looked awesome.”

The bay colt was second to American Pharoah at odds of 28-1 in the May 16 Xpressbet.com Preakness Stakes (gr.I), and Stewart hopes he can build on that effort. “I hope he has another step forward in him,” said Stewart, who finished second in a Triple Crown race for the third year in a row. “That’s what we’re here for,”

The Fipke homebred will have a long way to travel if he is to vanquish Triple Crown hopeful American Pharoah, who galloped 1 1/2 miles over the Churchill Downs main track Saturday.

The 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes is considerably farther than Tale of Verve has ever raced, but Stewart sees that as a positive. “It’s in his breeding,” said the Kentucky-based conditioner. “He’s a big horse and has a great stride, so hopefully it will add up. It’s going to be a matter of stamina and hopefully the best horse will win.”

Widely-traveled Belmont Stakes entrant Mubtaahij also continued his preparations for the race, working five furlongs in 1:01.05 on the Belmont main track this morning, the seventh-fastest time at the distance.

The colt was scheduled to work on the turf, but the move to the main track was made because the turf was too firm, said Trevor Brown, assistant to Mubtaahij’s trainer, Mike de Kock. Brown said he was very pleased with the colt’s effort over the main track and is positive the UAE Derby (UAE-II) winner has taken more kindly to the surface compared to Churchill, where he finished eighth in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), his first start in the U.S.

With de Kock’s arrival to New York expected for June 1, Brown said the horse would have an easy week.

“We’ll freshen him up now this week,” Brown said. “We’ve been pretty hard on him (and) that’s our normal routine. Two weeks out, we work him hard and the last week freshen him up, but he’s going good and we’re very happy with him.”

–       Bloodhorse.com

Picture: Mubtaahij (Liesl King)

Mike Bass now has his sights set on the Winter Derby after 8-1 shot Royal Dreamer wore down 6-1 stable companion Sail For Gold in the last two strides to give the Milnerton trainer his sixth Winter Classic in 16 years at Kenilworth yesterday.

Marsh Shirtliff and the trainer’s brother Stuart were toasting Greg Cheyne in the celebration room afterwards – and no doubt their co-owners Bryn Ressell and Markus Jooste did the same when they saw the film – because this was a real peach of an effort from a man riding with all the inspired determination you would expect from someone so high on the log.

He timed his effort to perfection and, when Grant van Niekerk extracted unexpected reserves from the runner-up, Cheyne also asked for more – and got it to score by a head.

Cheyne said: “Turning for home I felt I had it but then Grant proceeded to find a bit more and I thought he might have stolen it. However I was helped by the gallop being good and mine ran on really well.”

Liquid Mercury, the 18-10 favourite, was half a length back third with 20-1 chance Catkin the same distance away fourth. The first four were the first four behind Act Of War in the Winter Guineas, albeit not quite in the same order.

Candice Robinson, spelling out plans, said: “I don’t think Sail For Gold will see out the trip in the Winter Derby but Royal Dreamer certainly will.”

The stable needs just eight more winners to reach its seasonal century after Ernie (Van Niekerk) booked his Langerman ticket in the Mother City Juvenile and Pure Power (Robert Khathi) headed the yard’s trifecta in the Olympic Duel, scoring from Surfer Girl and Lanner Falcon.

S’Manga Khumalo went one ahead of Gavin Lerena in their titanic battle for the jockeys’ championship when bringing Crystal Cavern from last to first in the straight of the Stormsvlei Mile, despite the race being run at quite a slow pace.

The champion said: “That was the plan. Last time I won on her I also came from the back, and credit to the trainer because he knew exactly what I wanted to do.”

Adam Marcus added: “I was quite surprised she made up the ground in the heavy going and she will now probably run in the Winter Oaks. I thought there would be a doubt about the trip originally but I will have to think again after the way she finished here.”

Khumalo is now on 156, one ahead of Lerena who was forced to forego his three rides after being stood down on medical grounds at Greyville on Saturday.

He said: “I got cleaned up in the Daily News. When I pulled out Deputy Jud the gap was closing and I tweaked a muscle in my neck. It has settled down quite a bit already and I will be back racing on Wednesday.”

Cheyne is next on 142, six in front of Anthony Delpech, with Piere Strydom on 134. But really, it is beginning to look like a two-horse race.

Paddy Kruyer is going to run his Juvenile Fillies winner Anglet in the Irridescence on June 27 “and then put her away until the spring when she will be bigger and stronger.”

By Michael Clower

Picture: Greg Cheyne (Liesl King)

The Mike Bass-trained dual Gr 1-winning Trippi filly Inara was one of the most notable Vodacom Durban July scratchings at the second declaration stage yesterday (Monday) and this followed her disappointing fifth-place finish as favourite for Saturday’s Gr 1 Woolavington 2000.

Bass said Inara had been found to have “a nasty swelling” on her back leg on Sunday, having been run into from behind in the Woolavington at about the 1600m mark, but she was otherwise fine and he believed the chief reason for the below par effort was her stamina capacity.

He said, “There are not many Trippi fillies that can stay the 2000m but I thought beforehand that she would based on her Paddock Stakes win over 1800m.”

Inara also stayed on strongly from near the back of the field to finish runner up in the Gr 2 KRA Fillies Guineas, which suggested she would get the 2000m at the same  track.

However, Bass is now of the opinion that she is better over shorter, so duly scratched her from the July yesterday morning and is likely to  aim her at the Gr 1 Jonsson Workwear Garden Province Stakes over 1600m, which is one of July day’s main supporting features.

By David Thiselton