Ladies affair at Borrowdale

10 Feb, 2019 - 00:02 0 Views
Ladies affair at Borrowdale

The Sunday News

Mandla Moyo

IN today’s edition of Talking Horse Racing focus is on the Fillies Classic Race set for this afternoon at Borrowdale Racecourse.

The race, featuring three year olds is on at 1515hrs. Five horses are set to battle for the top prize in race six, the main act of the day over 1600m to separate the winner from pretenders to the throne.

The winning connection will leave the racecourse $4 800 richer from the declared stake of $8 000, leaving the next three to cross the line to get $1 600, $1 000 and $600 respectively.

Even though the field is lean it has all the ingredients to produce a thriller once the stall gates are swung open. Red hot Mia Finola from the stable of Bridget Stidolph is likely to attract most of the attention because of her career record which is decorated with a number of accolades posted over similar distances before.

Last year between July and December this filly recorded three wins and two place finishes.

To date from a total of ten runs she has done the honours at the parade ring four times as the winner plus five times as a placed runner, a record likely to give other connections a headache as they prepare for the race.

However, her stable mate Born To Shine is expected to give her a run for his money after exhibiting an improved performance failing to shave off her timings by just a few seconds.

Born To Shine has the best form with two consecutive wins plus fourth place finishes to date. If the runner finds her groove in time on the day she might make some noise all the way to the winning post.

Her fastest finish was recorded last in October when she crossed the line in 1 minute 37.32 seconds.

The fact that trainer Stidolph has deployed one of her tried and tested pilot Brendon McNaughton to take charge of the horse means something about the potential of the runner to make some noise here.

McNaughton is walking with a spring on his step after making headlines in Kenya last Sunday where he rode two winners to complete a hat trick of wins at the same venue.

In 2018 the competition was won by knuckleball from the yard of Lissa Harris. Coming into this race chances are high that Bridget may walk away with the honours once again.

Other runners amongst the field who have an outside of leaving the bookmakers with egg on their face are Ineffable and Double Dab.

In horse racing just like in other sport it’s not over till it’s over, punters therefore must be careful not to overlook these outsiders.

After all has been said and done when the stall gates open anything can happen in horse racing.

According to the Mashonaland Turf Club racing manager Betina Gurajena everything has gone according to plan and they are looking forward to a family day full of thrills and excitement.

@mandlamoyo3

Share This:

Survey


We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey

This will close in 20 seconds