Charles Lytton a confident choice

This Thomas Crown gelding has only raced seven times for four wins and two placings. His lone unplaced effort was in the Grade 1 Grand Parade Cape Guineas over 1600m in which he finished 8.80 lengths behind Act Of War.

He did not take long to come back to form as just four weeks ago he ran out a facile winner of the Sophomore Plate over this course and distance. On that occasion he sat just off the pace and when Grant van Niekerk let him go, Charles Lytton reacted immediately and with panache, and in a matter of strides he took the lead and went on to beat Kalamain by 1.25 lengths.

This time Richard Fourie rides him but the outcome should be the same. Charles Lytton is the best weighted runner under the race conditions and as he jumps from No 3 draw, it would come as a major surprise if he was unable to beat this field.

Once you look past Charles Lytton the race is open. The horse who is the next best-weighted runner is Frederick Fox and he does look the runner likely to follow Snaith’s charge home. He finished a three-length third behind Charles Lytton in his penultimate start and with just a 2kg turnaround in his favour, remains unlikely to reverse those placings.

An interesting runner is Notting Hill, winner of his last two races. This son of Horse Chestnut joined the Dorrie Sham stable after two poor runs on the Highveld and has not looked back. He won his first start on the Fairview turf track and then won on the Polytrack. Whether he is good enough to take on Charles Lytton only the race will tell.