Dean Kannemeyer believes his Gr 1 City Of Pietermaritzburg Sprint winner Real Princess deserves a crack at the Gr 1 Mercury Sprint against the boys and has freshened up his other runner Captain Alfredo.

He said, “Real Princess has got the credentials. I said before the Scottsville Sprint if Carry On Alice could win it then on form so could she (having finished on top of Carry On Alice in the Gr 2 Southern Cross Stakes) and she then proved it.”

The beautifully bred Trippi filly also beat Fly By Night and Lanner Falcon in the City Of Peiermaritzburg Sprint and Kannemeyer rated that pair as ”very good fillies.”

Real Princess (Nkosi Hlophe)

He continued, “I stayed out of the Gr 2 Diadem Stakes and Lanner Falcon and Fly By Night beat the boys there and finished one-two (six months ago in December). Real Princess is a better horse as a late four-year-old than she was six months go.”

She will be suited to Greyville as Kannemeyer pointed out she had “fantastic cruising speed” and she also showed at Scottsville how good her turn of foot was.

He said about Captain Alfredo, “He’s a tough campaigner and was a little below his very best in his last two starts. He found a bit of interference in the straight last time in the Post Merchants and before that in the Tsogo Sun Sprint didn’t quite finish, so I have freshened him up now. He is a bull of a horse and is tough and sound, but he hasn’t got a great draw.”

Real Princess has a good draw of six with Anthony Delpech retaining the ride and Lyle Hewitson rides Captain Alfredo from draw eleven.

Kannemeyer concluded, “They are both very well, but it’s a very strong race.”

Kannemeyer said his first-timer in race one over 1600m, The Slade, who is a big colt by Philantropist and a half-brother to Gr 1 winner Afrikaburn, would likely need a run or two for the penny to drop  but felt he could develop into a promising sort.

David Thiselton