Girls Affair at Borrowdale

31 Jan, 2016 - 00:01 0 Views

The Sunday News

Mandla Moyo Racing Correspondent
IT will be a girls’ only affair this afternoon at Borrowdale race course when eight, three-year-old horses lock horns for the Fillies Classic race.

The race is on at 3.40pm and has been pencilled in as race six on the card.

Winner of this years’ edition will gallop away $4 800 richer leaving the three runners up to get $1 600, $1 000 and $600 respectively.

Pacifica Merit rated (94) is the bookmaker’s favourite for the top gong. This bird with a load of 58,5 kilogrammes will step onto the turf carrying a lot of expectations from its team and multitude of followers.

Much will however depend on how trainer Gokhan Terzi has conditioned this horse for this 1 600m trip and how jockey Andrew Fortune in the irons will execute the plan.

The three-year-old filly is a winner of three races in Gauteng, South Africa between 1 200m and 1 450m.

From a total of 10 assignments Pacifica has claimed the honours three times and placing the same number of times.

However, in her last five races she has not gone beyond 1 450m, for that reason she might struggle during the dying stages of this competition, in the process s risks surrendering the initiative to the other contenders.

Another horse that is expected to rise to the occasion and push Pacifica all the way to the finishing post is Second Guessing ridden by Collen Murray and trained by Bridget Stidolp.

The fact that its last races have been around similar distances and beyond could tilt the scales in favour of this chestnut filly by Tamburline (IRE) and Preposterous (ZIM), once a winner and a runner up four times from a total of seven races to date. This horse cannot be overlooked here.

Then there is also Duffi’s Call one of the fastest equines among the pack, on a good day firing from all cylinders other horses can be in for a rude awakening. Brendon McNaughton will be in the irons.

According to horse racing analyst Sheldene Chant a lot is expected from Pacifica because of its rating.

“Pacifica certainly will bring something especially with Fortune riding and Also Ladies First. I always consider Betula Uber but she has not done much later and from Stidolph, I will pick maybe Duffi’s Call,” said Chant.

“Gokhan probably has something in there to set the pace but I don’t know who. He has a strong hand.”

Some of the runners in with a shout are Sky, Second Guessing, Hunyani, Betula Uber, Fashion World and Ladies First.

Print The Pounds trained by Stidolp is the winner of the 2015 edition of the race.

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