At Turffontein on Saturday the Grade 1 L Jaffee Empress Club Stakes and the Listed Spook Express Handicap head the card that is dedicated to the memory of those who perished in the Henneman air crash many years ago and racing enthusiast throughout the country will no doubt pause for a moment to honour their memory.

Alexis (Liesl King)

At Greyville tomorrow night, the Listed Easter Handicap will get the action underway. The race had been the top event on the washed out Scottsville meeting earlier in the week and Gold Circle has included it in tomorrow night’s programme and run on the turf over 2 000m as the opening race on the card.

Later, the Umzimkhulu Stakes and the Byerley Turk – two Grade 3 races over 1 400m for three-year-olds – will also be run on the turf and will see the first real seasonal onslaught by the visiting trainers with eight out-of-town yards competing in the two races. So it’s game on and we are in for some great racing over the next three-and-a-half months.

The Umzimkhulu Stakes is for fillies and with Mike de Kock withdrawing his one filly Bang Sue from the race, six runners are set to face the starter including De Kock’s daughter of Trippi, One Fine Day. This filly showed her potential a year ago when third to Alboran Sea in the Grade 1 Allan Robertson at Scottsville and second to Afrikaburn in the Grade 1 Golden Horseshoe at Greyville.

She then ran four lengths fourth to superstar stable companion Majmu over 1 400m at Turffontein which confirmed that she is well above average. Incidentally, Majmu will make her first appearance since her brilliant win in the Cape Fillies Guineas and will meet Same Jurisdiction from the Duncan Howells stable for the first time in the L Jaffee Empress Club Stakes at Turffontein.

Among those taking on One Fine Day tomorrow night is the Dynasty filly Alexis from the Brett Crawford stable, Silver Class from the Johan Janse van Vuuren yard and the Stuart Pettigrew-trained Future Fantastic where Anton Marcus has picked up the ride.

Heartland (Liesl King)

Alexis has shown some useful ability and could be the main danger to One Fine Day while Silver Class has not been disgraced behind the likes of Flame Cat and Rich Girl.

If Marcus cannot get Future Fantastic into the winner’s enclosure he has a big chance of doing that in the Byerley Turk where he partners the Western Winter colt Kingvoldt for trainer Joey Ramsden. The three-year-old ran super races behind star Act Of War in both the Selangor Cup and the Cape Guineas then put in a gallant effort behind Futura in the L’Ormarins Queens Plate.

He is the class act in this race and undoubtedly the one to beat but Justin Snaith is sure to believe that his Dynasty colt Heartland will give the favourite more than a run for his money. With only five runs to date and a third behind Act Of War in the Cape Classic last October, he has been a consistent performer and commands the utmost respect.

Of the local contenders, the Duncan Howells-trained colt Easy Lover has a good money chance from his inside draw. He has won up to a mile and has not been disgraced in his forays to the Highveld for feature events. The blinkers will be removed for tomorrow night’s contest and his easy win in the KZN Guineas Trial is evidence that on his day he is a useful individual.

Light The Lights finished close up behind Mljet and Harry’s Son in the season last year which is testimony to his ability when on song and Glen Kotzen will be looking for a bold showing from his charge tomorrow night.

Ceres-based Cheveley might well have achieved something of a record last season as they produced the Horse Of The Year in both South Africa and Zimbabwe with respective Vodacom Durban July and Castle Tankard winners Legislate and Equina.

Their ten-horse draft for the forthcoming Bloodstock South Africa National Yearling Sales, to be held at the TBA’s sales complex at Gosforth Park in Johannesburg from 22 to 24 April, is sure to command a lot of attention.

Gimmethegreenlight (Nkosi Hlophe)

Among them is a half-brother to Legislate by Gimethegreenlight.

Gimmethegreenlight is by world leading sire, More Than Ready, who was one of the youngest ever to attain 100 stakes winners and 1000 winners and has been a champion sire of two-year-olds in both Australia and the USA. Gimmethegreenlight became the first three-year-old for 39 years to win the L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate when beating the great Variety Club in 2012. The big horse was also admired for his fantastic conformation and looked to be a ready-made sire from day one of his racing career.

Gimmethegreenlight’s Cheveley Stud-bred half-brother to Dynasty, out of the four-time winning Restructure mare Champers, is lot 92 on the sale.

Another Cheveley Stud-bred yearling that will attract a lot of interest will be lot 294, a Captain Al colt out of the outstanding Royal Academy broodmare Mystic Spring. The latter arrived on the farm as a “small, light, narrow mare with a fierce temperament, not your ideal broodmare!” She then settled down well, but her first foal by Jallad had such crooked legs that he never saw a sale. However, this foal turned out to be the Equus three-year-old Champion colt of 2004/2005, Rabiya, who won the Gr 1 Cape Guineas and the Gr 1 Daily News 2000.

Mystic Spring has since produced four more stakes winners, Secret Of Victoria, Spring Lilac, Rafiya and Touch The Sky and all seven of her runners to date have been winners. She will likely become an important matriarch as her daughters Secret Of Victoria and Spring Lilac have respectively produced the Equus Champion two-year-old filly All Is Secret and the stakes winner Victorian Secret. Captain Al needs little introduction either having been a Champion Sire of two-year-olds, a consistent National top five sire in the last few seasons and having produced eight Gr 1 winners in total, including a J&B Met winner.

Victorian Secret (Liesl King)

The other National Sales yearling that Vaughan Koster made special mention of was lot 391, a Dynasty colt out of the four-time winning Elliodor mare Siena, who has already produced the Listed Oaks winner Rush For John (Jet Master).

Shirley and Vaughan are members of the famous Koster family breeding dynasty.

Ralph Koster founded Klavervlei Stud, spelt with a “v” and not like today’s “w”, in Beaufort West in 1943, starting with six mares that he had acquired from Allan Robertson. His sons Peter (father of today’s Klawervlei Stud part-owner John), Wilfred (Vaughan’s father) and Werner (father of Graeme of Rosedene Stud) continued the tradition.

Ralph’s youngest son Wilfred worked with him from 1962 until 1980 and together they bred some superior racehorses, which including the July winner Mazarin as well as Jerez, Majolica, Polar Bear, Sword Dancer, Savanarola, Black Bishop, Arctic Circle, Vaso Casanova and Rosinante. The families of many of these horses became the founding stock of the Cheveley Stud, which was started when Wilfred and his wife Shirley moved lock, stock ‘n barrel to Ceres in 1980. Wilfred and Shirley continued the legacy and bred many superior racehorses and a few champions. These included London News, National Emblem, Badger’s Drift, Goldmark, Vesta, Finest View, Divine Act, Angelina, Rabiya, Argonaut, and Gluwein.

Ralph’s sons used to combine their stock under one banner named “Koster Brothers” and were champion breeders for three successive seasons from 1988/1989 to 1990/1991 and were again champions in 1995/1996. The Koster name was once again on the champion breeders role last season when Klawervlei Stud won the championship for the first time.

Vaughan began working for Cheveley Stud in 2005 and runs it today on the same principles adhered to by his much respected late father Wilfred.

Justin Snaith said yesterday: “He was drawn on the wrong side of the course in the Protea and, while I am not saying that this accounted for the bad run, it didn’t help and I also think he would have done better if had been allowed to use his action more. He definitely runs in the Nursery.”

Hassen Adams’ colt showed himself to be one of the best of the early Western Cape two-year-olds when winning the Listed race on Met day but Snaith is under no illusions about the strength of the opposition in Johannesburg.

He said: “Cape Town two-year-old racing is the most uncompetitive around, and you don’t get trainers there pushing their two-year-olds whereas the guys in Jo’burg do so a lot more.”

Picture: Buckinghampshire (Sportingpost)

The Duncan Howells-trained Mambo In Seattle filly Same Jurisdiction is being taken care of at Turffontein by Joey Soma and KZN champion trainer Howells said yesterday that she had come out of her narrow defeat in the Gr 1 Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Classic on March 28 “exceptionally well”. He added that her preparation for Saturday’s race had gone according to plan and that the veterinarian had checked her and confirmed her to be 100% sound.

Howells said about the going, which was “very soft” for the SA Fillies Classic, “I think the soft going over 1800m might not have suited her as she probably only just stays 1800m in good going. But over 1600m it shouldn’t worry her as long as it’s not a quagmire. The 1600m is her right distance.”

The weather forecast predicts 18mm between Wednesday and Friday this week and no rain on Saturday, so the going should be suitable for good racing.

Same Jurisdiction (Nkosi Hlophe)

Same Jurisdiction made up a lot of ground in the straight of the Gr 2 Wilgerbosdrift Gauteng Fillies Guineas, despite having been bowled at the start and clipping heels shortly thereafter. However, she was not at her very peak and faded late. This time she should be in peak condition and is drawn superbly in barrier four with the brilliant big race rider Piere Strydom aboard.

The Mike de Kock-trained Australian-bred Redoute’s Choice filly Majmu will still be a very tough nut to crack as she looks to be a great in the making and form evidence to date would suggest that only luck in running, or having an off day, can beat her. She was considered the most likely horse to land the Wilgerbosdrift Triple Tiara after her amazing win in the Gr 1 Avontuur Estate Cape Fillies Guineas. She looked to have possibly gone for home too early in that race as jockey Anthony Delpech had decided to squeeze her through a narrow gap at the top of the straight.

However, when the challengers loomed up she found another gear and simply powered away from them to win easing up by 2,5 lengths. In the manner of all great racehorses, she had made top horses look ordinary and just how good those horses were was proven when the runner up Inara came out and won two prestigious weight for age Gr 1 races in January, beating older females in the process.

Furthermore, Majmu is the only female to date to have beaten Siren’s Call, who now looks to be an odds-on shot to land the Triple Tiara, having won both the Gauteng Fillies Guineas and the SA Fillies Classic, beating Same Jurisdiction in both races. In fact, Majmu not only beat Siren’s Call but gave her 4kg and a 1,75 length thrashing in their only meeting over 1400m, so on strict formlines Same Jurisdiction’s hopes of beating her look forlorn.

Majmu was scratched from the SA Fillies Classic and Mathew de Kock explained at the time, ““Majmu is a little behind in her fitness and we won’t be chasing the Triple Tiara for the sake of it. She took her time to recover after her journey back from the Guineas in Cape Town and putting her back in a Gr 1 race over 1800m at this stage will be too hard on her. The Empress Club Stakes will fit better into her schedule.”

Mathew confirmed this week in a videoed interview with Andrew Bonn that the yard expected Majmu to give close to her best performance, although he added that she would likely come on from the run and probably be at her absolute peak next time out.

Majmu (JC Photos)

Majmu’s draw of eight should be of little concern to Delpech as she settles well and appears to make up ground effortlessly in the straight before changing into topgear.

Some will view the clash as the settlement of an argument that arose in the wake of last season’s Equus Champion two-year-old filly Award, although that would ignore the fact that both horses are now three-years-old. The controversy arose due to the hitherto unbeaten Majmu having received the award despite having never raced in a Gr 1 event before. All of her wins had been in feature races, including an 8,75 length romp against a below par field in the Gr 2 SA Fillies Nursery, and she had also been  accorded the highest merit rating for a two-year-old filly in South African history.

However, she unfortunately fell ill before her Gr 1 program had begun. Some believed that the award had made a mockery of the graded system and that Same Jurisdiction should have been named champion, having won all three of her starts following her debut defeat, including a victory over the other Gr 1-winning nominees, Carry On Alice and Bilateral, in the Gr 1 Thekwini Stakes.

It would be dangerous to ignore the other runners in a high quality field on Saturday. A much better run from can be expected here by Banbury, who will attempt to give Gavin van Zyl two successive wins in this race. She overraced when taken too handy in the SA Fillies Classic and her win in the Gr 3 Fillies Mile proved that she is better when held up. She should find a nice position for free from pole position.

The older horses Hammie’s Hooker and Arcetri Pink have proven themselves top class and the latter appears to grow an extra leg when the going is soft so must be hugely respected in those conditions. Trophy Wife has consistently been close up behind Siren’s Call and will enjoy the 1600m trip, especially in fast conditions.  Smart Call was only beaten a length by Trophy Wife in the Gauteng Fillies Guineas and there is now a reversal in draw fortunes. Tamanee should finish close to that pair. Not Sulking has class and is course and distance suited too. The ever improving Whatalady is an interesting runner, but has a tough task from a wide draw. Winter Star will be stretched by the trip, especially from her wide draw, and Enchanted Silk appears outclassed.

However, the veteran trainer is still looking forward to the Champions Season due to his young Argonaut two-year-old colt Beat The Retreat, who was an impressive 3,5 length winner on debut over 1000m at Scottsville.

Royal Life (Nkosi Hlophe)

Gordon said about Royal Life, “We are going to take him along slowly and if he is good enough he will be aimed more at the Cape Season.” He elaborated by saying that throwing Royal Life into big races straightaway might be too hard on him and they would rather build up his confidence by finding easier tasks and taking him through the divisions.

The Dynasty colt has only had two starts to date, both for former trainer Duncan Howells. He was backed from 10/1 into 22/10 on debut over 1200mat Scottsville, but proved to be up against a firecracker in the Tony Rivalland-trained Highway Explorer, who followed up by winning first time out of the maidens off a merit rating of 81.

However, when stepped up to 1600m next time out Royal Life showed his true potential. He became stronger and stronger the longer the race went and galloped past the line full of running two win by 6,5 lengths. He was then bought out of the Howells yard by Rattray.

Gordon clearly has hopes for Beat The Retreat. However, being one of the country’s longest standing trainers, he will never talk up a horse too soon and admitted that it was always difficult to gauge how good a two-year-old was at this stage of the season. He said, “He looks half decent. He was a bit shin sore after his first run but it was not a big problem. He shows a lot at home and if he proves good enough he could take on some of the bigger Champions Season two-year-old races.”

Beat the Retreat had the field spread out like the washing behind him on debut, which is usually the sign of good form, and the runner up King’s Knight has franked the form to a certain extent by subsequently finishing a narrow runner up to the promising Vous Et Var over the same 1000m distance at Greyville.