Punters face a tricky evening at Greyville where they are confronted with a card of generally weak maidens and lower division handicaps. For a variety of reasons, horses at the lower end of the merit rating scale cannot always be relied upon to hold form and often one or other with little obvious ability but feeling good on the day has punters scratching their heads at the improved form.

Anton Marcus

That said, Paul Lafferty’s runner Cupking looks one of the better bets on the card when he lines up in the second, opening leg of the PA. With a merit rating far superior to anything else in the field and runner-up in his last two, he will never get a better chance to shed his maiden. Possible threat could come in the form of Mighty Mississippi from the Doug Campbell yard but the four-year-old has already had 13 stabs at winning and although seldom far back he tends to lack extra when it counts.

With a winning strike rate in the region of 27% it is little wonder that Anton Marcus is aboard more than his fair share of favourites but there is a double edge to his sword as often his mere presence in the saddle is enough to convince backers that he’s on the right one.

Marcus does however, sleep with the form book under his pillow, and he may have picked the right one in Enchanted Drawing for James Goodman in the third. The gelding has shown the poly track to be his preferred surface and the addition of blinkers last time out saw him improve behind winner Roy’s Past. Marcus and the extended trip could finally see him in the winner’s enclosure.

But he is by no means home-and-hosed. There are six “Roy’s” carded this evening, two of them taking on Enchanted Drawing. Yogas Govender saddles the oddly named Roy Is Slow but who looked quite speedy when making marked and obviously unexpected improvement at his second outing finishing a close-up second to favourite Media Circus at odds of 55-1. A repeat effort will give Marcus something to think about. Alyson Wright has booked Anthony Delpech for Eastern Echo after his improved showing while Roy’s Flyer and the now blinkered Fire Bolt could surprise.

Byron Foster does a sterling job for Andre Nel at Sabine Plattner’s Summerveld satellite yard and the lightly raced At Long Last can live up to his name and notch his second win in the fourth. Although rested and having only his second run out of the maidens, the gelding has improved all the while but still comes into the race off a five-point lower rating than his last start. He is also course and distance suited which adds to his appeal.

For some bizarre reason, the death of a stallion often heralds a spate of winners, and the passing of AP Answer this week could herald back-to-back wins for his daughter Fashion Talk. She backed up two seconds with an easy victory last time out and although she takes on males her form is good. However, this is not a race to go light in the exotics with upset written all over it. The Ashburton-based trio of Enlightenment from the Duncan Howells yard and the Lowan Denysschen pair of For Ever and Principate are others to consider.

The ‘Donkey’ takes on the ‘Taxi’ but ‘Harry’ could have ‘Da Wheels’ in the sixth. Roy’s Taxi has been too quick for Harry da Wheels in their last two meetings but Candice Bass-Robinson’s runner is 3kg better off at the weights this time around which should be enough to reverse the placings.

A runner to keep an eye on is Delamere. Gavin van Zyl’s charge has had two outings on the poly since arriving from the Highveld and caught the eye behind another ‘Roy’, Roy’s Rolls Royce, and looks primed for a big showing.

By Andrew Harrison