No Worries, a four-year-old Kahal gelding, stayed on steadily in the Gr 2 Drill Hall Stakes over the too sharp 1 400m at Greyville last Saturday, finishing a 5,4 length seventh. He will have benefitted from the run and will have a chance over the suitable 1 900m trip next Friday as long as the tactics employed are favourable.

His best runs last season were when the blinkers were on and he was held up. On both of those occasions, in the Gr 1 Daily News 2000 and the July respectively, he ran on powerfully.

In the Cape summer he didn’t have it his way in any of his races. He needs to be rousted out of the gates, due to a tardy starting habit he was beginning to develop early in his career, and when he had the blinkers on during that disappointing Cape campaign he took hold of the bit and ended up too handy. However, when they were finally dispensed with for the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate he was still taken to the front in order to overcome a wide draw.

Things appeared to have gone well for him without blinkers in the running of the J&B Met, but he proved in that race that he produces his best with the blinkers on as he failed to go on with his effort in the straight.

There is no doubting his latent ability and he is due some luck, so should be a big runner in the 1900.

He is drawn nine out of the 39 entries, so looks likely to get a favourable barrier position and the early cover he will need in order to be settled near the back.

Shogunnar, a five-year-old Solskjaer gelding, hurt himself while in Cape Town after he had won his only start this season over 1 600m at Kenilworth on November 3. The yard could not pinpoint what was wrong with him, so chose to rest him.

He has “bounced back” after rehabilitation on the treadmill and has been doing “very nicely” ever since. He finished only 4,65 lengths back in last year’s July and only three lengths back in the Gold Cup. His next intended run after the 1900 will be in the Gr 2 weight for age Betting World Derby over 2 500m at Clairwood, which is now open to all ages. The Gold Cup is likely his main mission of the Champions Season.

Meanwhile, the yard’s now dual Gr 1-winning champion filly Along Came Polly is doing well at Summerveld and has become more relaxed with age, an asset which is always welcomed in horseracing. The Judpot filly was given a bit of an easier program for a few days after her Gr 1 Laurie Jaffee Empress Club Stakes (1 600m) victory, but has never been out of training and was soon back in full work. Her next race will likely be in the Gr 1 Woolavington 2000 at Greyville, where she landed her first career Gr 1 in last season’s Thekwini Stakes over 1600m.

The Gr 1 SA Oaks runner up Mohave Princess, an Australian-bred bred filly by Mount Nelson, has been doing well in Johannesburg and will be coming down for the Woolavington 2000. She was unlucky in the GR 1 SA Classic, when sent for home too soon and only finishing two lengths back in sixth, so will enjoy the Greyville 2 000m trip.

The yard’s promising two-year-old colt Trippi colt Punk Rocker will be running in the Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Medallion over 1 200m at Scottsville on May 24.

He has won two from two and showed tremendous resolve when beating Beckedorf in the Gr 3 Godolphin Barb Stakes over 1 100m last time out. This pair went eyeball to eyeball for 500m in that race but Punk Rocker got the upper hand late despite having to give 2kg to the runner up.

Beckedorf franked the form by winning a Maiden Juvenile Plate by 4,25 lengths next time out. Punk Rocker has the credentials to be a contender in the Medallion as he has good cruising speed together with the ability to kick and then fight on all the way to the line.

The yard’s former sprinting star Franny has been retired, having failed to recapture her excellent two-year-old and three-year-old form on her return from a fetlock injury, although she did finish a close-up third in the Gr 2 Sceptre Stakes over 1 200m at Kenilworth in January.[/expand]