Sensational racing: Zillzaal to use race as stepping stone to Summer Cup

What a weekend of racing we have coming up. The R1-million Peer- mont Emperors Palace Charity Mile tops tomorrow’s 13-race card at Turffontein, there is racing at Kenilworth and the USA’s most important racing event, the Breeders Cup meet- ing at Santa Anita.

This is actually a two-day meeting which starts today, and TAB will have betting on all 22 races into some massive commingled pools. To view all the bets on offer please go to www.tabonline.co.za.

Into the mix we can also throw the Rugby World Cup Final which will be broadcast live at the racecourse. With all that on offer, Turffontein is the place to be! The 16 charities and their respective celebrities will add to the electricity as they wait to hopefully cheer home their horse.

The charities will share in a R1-million bonus with R150,000 going to the one who drew the winning horse at last week’s draw. The withdrawal of favourite Buffalo Bill Cody has thrown the race wide open and as it is a handicap, literally any horse can win it.

The problem is that a number of runners have one eye on the R2-million Gauteng Summer Cup on 30 November. As a result, they might still be in need of that one run to bring them to their peak. But that does not mean they will not chasing R580,000 first prize paid out to the winner.

Current favourite is Sean Tarry- trained Zillzaal who made an appealing return to racing after a rest in which he was gelded. He won his comeback race over 1600m with ease, but this is a far stronger field and he will no doubt be a lot better over the 2000m distance of the Summer Cup.

He does have Piere Strydom up and that is in his favour, but he will have to overcome the second- run-after-a-layoff syndrome. Tarry also has a very talented filly in In The Dance who has only raced five times for three wins and two seconds.

One of those seconds was a neck behind former Sun Met winner Oh Susanna in the Tibouchina Stakes at Greyville. She is a half-sister to Capetown Noir who won multiple Grade 1 races and was at his best over 1600m so on breeding she should have no concerns about the distance.

Tarry has engaged Nooresh Juglall to ride the daughter of Gimmethegreenlight. Mike de Kock has three runners le in the race after the scratching of Buffalo Bill Cody and the best of the trio looks to be Barahin, who De Kock believes needs to be gelded.

“He needs further,” said De Kock yesterday, “and this is a prep run for the Summer Cup. But I was happy with his last run over 1600m and I believe he will run well.” De Kock has also le the blinkers on him to make sure he keeps his mind on the job.

“He is a very difficult horse at times and he has become a bit of a ‘meneer’,” Others to consider are Infamous Fox, Camphoratus, Cascapedia, Divine Odyssey and Flying Winger, who came in as the reserve runner.

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