With a few horses on the radar at Greyville, highly-rated trainer Dennis Bosch will fancy his winning chances. Picture: Facebook
By his own high standards, Dennis Bosch has had a lean time lately, with no winner in 78 days. That situation can’t continue much longer for one of the canniest trainers around. In fact, it’s unlikely to last beyond Monday’s Polytrack meeting at Greyville, where “Uncle Den” will saddle a few runners with high expectations.
He could put things to rights as early as Race 1 with Brave Voyager, a three-year-old who impressed in finishing fourth in his only outing to date. The inexperienced gelding was all over the shop that day, a fortnight ago, and will be a lot more clued-up this time.
Brave Voyager could hardly ask for better assistance from the saddle as Craig Zackey gets back on – with the jockey a lot wiser to the task, too.
In Race 4, Bosch and Zackey team up again – with And We Danced, an honest and consistent filly who looks primed for a second career victory. This race will be tougher to crack than the first, with a few rivals at least on a par with the daughter of Pathfork in terms of form – such as Rainbow Unicorn, Golden Archer and Rain Wear.
Bosch’s brightest chance on the card comes in the last race with Capetown Affair – who could be a banker selection for exotics punters.
The five-year-old gelding transferred from the Highveld to Summerveld in January, with two wins to his credit but having gone stale and tumbled in the ratings. The new environment worked the trick as he debuted on the Poly a week ago, finishing second and giving notice that he was feeling like his youthful self again.
That effort – coming after a 12-week racing break – will have brought him on a lot. Also, he jumps from the paint and has up-and-coming Kaidan Brewer’s apprentice allowance giving him just 50.5kg to carry.
Bosch has a couple of other, outsider, chances on the day: Hallerbos in the first, Banderilla in the second, Bugsy Malone in the seventh and What A Blast in the eighth.
Bouncebackability.
SELECTIONS
1: 5 Brave Voyager, 3 Alpenhorn, 1 Hallerbos, 4 Quick Response
2: 4 Perfect Angel, 1 Winter Journey, 2 Banderilla, 8 Sky Café
3: 6 Leslies Pathtofame, 7 Purple Powahouse, 9 We All Chomies, 1 Two Of Us
4: 5 And We Danced, 1 Rainbow Unicorn, 6 Golden Archer, 7 Rain Wear
5: 5 Let’s Not Linger, 8 Luna Eclipse, 3 Razzle Dazzle Em, 4 Golden Delight
6: 4 Straight Up, 7 Final Destiny, 6 Brandenburg, 2 Rain Or Shine
7: 3 Pashtunwali, 7 Bugsy Malone, 9 Roy’s Command, 4 Valencia
8: 1 Capetown Affair, 5 Fiery Duke, 9 Genie, 10 Movie Magic
Pick 6: 1,3,4,6,7,9 x 1,5,6,7 x 3,5,8 x 2,3,4,6,7 x 3,7,9 x 1 (R1080)
PA: 4 x 6,7,9 x 1,5 x 5,8 x 4,7 x 3,7 x 1 (R48)