The Sunday News
Mandla Moyo, Sports Reporter
A total of sixteen horses have been given the green flag to battle for the $100 000 Castle Tankard (GR1) Race, the 57th edition to be run over 2 000m at Borrowdale Racecourse on Saturday.
This final field which is off at 1620hrs according to the programme looks impressive in that most of runners have made their presence felt at the racecourse whenever they are loaded.
The winning connection will collect a cool $60 000 while the next four placed runners will get a hold of $20 000, $12 000, $6 000 and $2 000 respectively.
The equines that will find their way into the starting stalls to take their marks are Simona, a trailblazing runner with a glittering career record, Heir Line, Twilight Trip, Amsterdam winner of several competitions as well as the Independence Trophy recently.
Also fighting for the honours are his two runners-up of the day, Knuckleball as well as Roman Descent.
Other runners that are set to take their marks are Peggson, Fareeq, Master n’ Commander, Bush Pilot, Penny from Heaven, Verdier, Arte, Solinski, Leven Point as well as Wolves Among Sheep.
The well-performed and distance suited Simona in as well is in. Simona is carrying a top weight of 60kgs, followed by Heir Line who comes in at 59.5 kgs.
It will be interesting to see how these two will do considering their excess baggage when push comes to shove.
Writing online, trainer Kirk Swanson had this to say about one of his best runners among the field Amsterdam drawn wide in lane (15) a winners over a similar distance a few weeks ago.
“Amsterdam is the yards very own Roger Federer, pretty and effective despite having a few years on his opponents.
“Guaranteed to be a silver fox he has recently found his niche in Zimbabwe racing and is an intelligent horse with a big character and even bigger appetite for affection, he is easy to love, and easy to work with.
“He comes off back to back feature wins, and is feeling great, he has a wide draw to overcome but Raymond Danielson has built a great partnership with him and we’re confident they can make it work.
“We are very excited to see what they can do together on Tankard Day, above all we love working with this special horse, he is smoother than cream cheese on a bagel,” said Swanson.
What makes this race tricky is that most of the runners are winners over this particular distance hence punters are likely to find is a tough assignment to pick out a winner from this field
Out of the eighteen that went into the hat, only two could not pass all the pre-race qualifying stages hence were dropped, these are Coachella as well as Master Switch.
@mandlamoyo3
