Ready To Attack is to go again before the winter is out and he looks like staying a kilo or two in front of the handicapper after returning to winning form in the Racing.It’s A Rush Handicap at Kenilworth on Saturday.

Richard Fourie’s mount won with authority but the margin was only three-quarters of a length and apparently there is more to come.

“He was not quite ready so he should improve a bit from this and he loves the wet,” explained Chris Snaith. “In Australia More Than Ready’s offspring are renowned for liking the soft when they can be five to ten lengths better.”

Gelding is also playing a part in the three-year-old’s improvement – “He was a very aggressive sort and if ever a horse was well-named it’s him. He put MJ Byleveld in hospital after winning the Langerman and if anything came near him at home he would back up three paces and let fly. We gelded him six or seven weeks ago and he looks a lot calmer now.”

However Snaith snr quickly found out that appearances can be deceptive with this horse. ‘Three weeks after the operation I put him back in the string and he promptly started lining them up again!”

The Australian-bred sported the Jooste colours carried to Mercury Sprint victory by Red Ray ten minutes earlier but is part-owned by Hassen Adams who has become a major player in the Stop Hunger Now campaign and personally packed 3 000 meals. In his more familiar role Adams also scored with the Darrel Hodgson-trained 10-1 shot Trippvilia (Xavier Carstens) and Red Light Girl for Snaith Racing.

The last-named started favourite for her two previous races but got going too late. Fourie made sure it was third time lucky by bouncing her out of the pens and leading throughout. His mount beat the well-regarded Scandola by three and a half lengths with the third seven lengths away.

Randall Simons, hoping to build some useful Cape Town contacts on his first visit to Kenilworth  for five seasons, had the sort of day that air travellers have nightmares about.

“When I got to Oliver Tambo at 6.00am South African Airways told me that they had cancelled my 7.00am flight the night before,” he related. “I’d received a flight confirmation but no emails about any cancellation.

“I tried to get on other flights – I even drove to Lanseria and then back to Oliver Tambo – but I couldn’t get anything.”

In the Kenilworth weighing room trainers and their assistants searched for last-minute replacements as desperately as prospectors during a gold strike. But the already-critical situation was made even worse by Craig du Plooy falling sick after the first and three of the Simons mounts had to be scratched.

Charisma made sure of a Port Elizabeth reprieve by responding to first time blinkers in the Designamite Incorporated Maiden. “She is a very light-framed filly and there is a fine line between getting her fit enough and doing too much,” said Candice Robinson. ”We said we would send her to PE if she couldn’t win her maiden.”

Aldo Domeyer followed up on Shane Humby top weights Tribal Fusion and Neala but Robert Khathi, who won the last on Galla Placidia for Eric Sands, has been suspended for a week because of the way Sign Your Name barged aside her opponents a week earlier.

Paul Reeves, who had an opening race one-two with 20-1 shots, reckons runner-up Birds Eye View has more of a future than the winner. “He is a nice horse in the making whereas Brandon May’s mount Newsman is a Mauritius candidate. He ran a good race in a strong field first time but in his second race he wouldn’t raise a gallop and I put blinkers on here,” he explained.

Michael Clower