The Telegraph of London described the result of the 2022 Grand National at the weekend as “one to swell the heart, not the wallet. Picture: iStock
The “Old Firm” of Eastern Cape racing just keeps rolling. Trainers Gavin Smith and Alan Greeff have dominated the game in Nelson Mandela Bay for donkey’s years – and before that it was their fathers.
Other accomplished trainers ply their trade at Fairview, but they don’t look like disrupting the traditional order of things just yet – and surely not at Tuesday’s Polytrack meeting, at which the two titans look likely to share most of the spoils between them.
Smith and Greeff are still in the top five on the national championship log four months into the new season – despite the much lower stakes on offer in PE compared to other centres. And expected hauls on Tuesday will keep them up there a little longer.
In Race 1, Smith saddles Princess Of Winter and Greeff Ladonna Mia and both fillies have fair chances of breaking their maidens. However, this might be one race that gives other conditioners a look-in – such as Zietsman Oosthuizen with Grayswood Pink and Jaap Visser with Taste Maker.
But, from then on, it looks like being the Smith and Greeff Show.
The former sends out the best bet on the card – Vision On Ice in Race 3 – and could easily make it a treble on the day with Stay The Course in the second and Namaqualand in the fifth.
Ante-post betting odds suggest Greeff will go one better with four wins: Respectable Miss in Race 4, Que Cosas in Race 6, Inherit The Rain in Race 7 and The Black Manx in Race 8
SELECTIONS
1: 5 Grayswood Pink, 10 Taste Maker, 7 Ladonna Mia, 1 Princess Of Winter
2: 1 Stay The Course, 3 Arizona Sky, 7 Super Fun, 2 Lord Marmite
3: 1 Vision On Ice, 2 Fort Snow, 3 Crafty Heart, 9 Get It Done
4: 2 Respectable Miss, 10 Lotus King, 1 Last Of The Legend, 11 Charlie McCreevy
5: 10 Namaqualand, 7 Pacific Duke, 4 Phil’s Power, 3 American Landing
6: 3 Que Cosas, 8 Law And Order, 2 Silent Observer, 1 Catch The Cat
7: 5 Inherit The Rain, 3 Williams Land, 4 Crown Guardian, 10 Torio Lake
8: 5 The Black Manx, 8 Daleel, 6 Life On Mars, 12 The Sands
Pick 6: 1 x 1,2,6,10,11 x 1,3,4,7,10 x 1,2,3,8 x 3,4,5 x 3,5,6,8,12 (R1500)
PA: 1,3 x 1 x 1,2,10 x 4,7,10 x 3 x 3,5 x 5,8 (R72)