Series Match race heads up family fun day at the Vaal

It is Family Fun Day at the Vaal tomorrow and in addition to the normal nine races, fans will be treated to the WSB Grand Series Match Race between Tsitsikamma Dance and Dan The Lad.

Ashley Fortune’s charge won the first leg of the Grand Series run in October while leg 2 went to Soldier On.

However, trainer Stuart Pettigrew felt he had other plans for his charge and now runner-up Dan The Lad has come in.

The two will be running for a winner-takes-all purse of R250,000.

The race has been numbered Race 12 but will be run over 1475m at 1.15pm, between Race 2 and 3. Over this track and trip Tsitsikamma Dance should be very hard to beat.

Trainer Mike de Kock has a group of outstanding three-year-olds and they just keep fl owing out of his yard.

Last month he brought out a daughter of Silvano named Mrs Simpson and she wasted no time get-ting off the mark, beating Harleyfi ve by 2.60 lengths over 1200m.

Just how good she actually is could be determined tomorrow in Race 5 when she comes out in an Assessment Plate over the straight 1600m.

On paper she should only finish in third place. Best-weighted runner under the race conditions is Alec Laird-trained Invincible Lady who is 3kg better handicapped than Sand Princess and 4.5kg better off with Mrs Simpson.

However, while Invincible Lady has been the model of consistency, she has proved costly for punters, having run seven times for one win and six places.

She started favourite for five of those starts and while she has been sparingly raced, does not look to have the same potential as Mrs Simpson.

Sand Princess won on debut over 1200m after which she contested four consecutive feature races but did not place in any of them.

Her last run was in the Grade 3 Fillies Mile where she was drawn wide and never featured.

However, she has raced against strong-er and should enjoy the drop in class.

This is also her third run after a layoff and with the Sean Tarry stable in top form the chances of this daughter of Crusade cannot be ignored.

Mrs Simpson is likely to enjoy the extra distance and also has the benefit of having Gavin Lerena back aboard.

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