Class Act. The Bezrin gelding Celtic Fire goes for his fourteenth win in Friday’s Fairview Mile.
Yvette Bremner’s loyal warrior Celtic Fire looks the class act in Friday’s R90 000 Fairview Mile (NBT). The versatile son of Bezrin goes for his fourteenth win and looks well in at the weights.
Jockey Karis Teetan returns to action in this non black type feature after a short suspension and a disappointing J&B Met, where his mount Jackson delivered an inexplicably flat performance. The Mauritian will be happy to get back amongst the winners here, and rides one of his favourite horses in a small field.
Teetan rode Celtic Fire in an abortive raid on the 2011 Met, when they finished well back behind Past Master, but the gelding is a different proposition on his own turf where he boasts a record of 13 wins from 40 starts. He also won this corresponding race last year, and loves the course and distance.
He bounced right back to his best last time when accounting for Shujaa by 3,2 lengths in the Memorial Mile over the course and distance, and looks to hold the whole lot who were behind him there, bar Indian Hawk who did not run. He is a versatile horse who can handle any tempo of pace, and looks the likely exotic banker.
Alarm Bells
His stablemate Blaze Of Fire is the likely pacesetter and while 2, 5 kgs better off on the Memorial Mile run, has to make up a conclusive 3, 6 lengths. While the younger of the two and a fit horse, Blaze Of Fire is generally held by Celtic Fire, but won a Conditions Plate in good style over 1400m at Arlington three weeks ago. He meets stronger here though.
Tara Laing’s Parceval is a consistent winner of 5 of 16 starts. The 2012 Arlington 1800 winner showed his fitness with a 0,25 length win over Zezinho Campeao in an MR 96 handicap over 1800m at Arlington last time, and assuming we ignore his tardy effort in the Memorial Mile where he ran wide and faded badly, then his formline hardly looks shoddy.
Made To Fly
Justin Snaith’s 4yo Black Minnaloushe gelding Indian Hawk has had a two month break since an unsuccesful bash at the Algoa Cup. He had won 2 of his previous 4 starts, which included a course and distance victory where he beat Blaze Of Fire, Parceval and Celtic Fire
He could rattle both Celtic Fire and Parceval’s cages, if not needing this run. Consider the fact that Indian Hawk is only a kilo worse off with Celtic Fire for beating him 6.7 5 lengths, only a half kilo worse off with Parceval for beating him 5,75 lengths, but as much as 3kgs worse off with Blaze Of Fire, whom he beat 3,5 lengths.
Mitchell Wiese’s three way coupling is headed by the Australian bred Shujaa, who has won three of his last five starts. This strong front runner is probably slightly more effective at Arlington, and is held by Celtic Fire on their Memorial Mile meeting.
Superfederation is no slouch and finished a 3,75 length third to Iron Grey in receipt of 4 kgs over the course and distance last time out. With a negative 6kg turnaround in the weights with his stablemate, he should finish well behind Iron Grey again.
Iron Man
Iron Grey is the third of the Wiese trio and the Western Winter gelding, who was formerly trained in Cape Town by Neil Bruss, has improved his form profile dramatically in the past few months.
One of the most difficult horses to control in view of a tendency to hang towards the outside rail near the finish of his races, the gelding looks to have been mastered, having won his last three starts. It is interesting though that he has had a different jockey each time, and now Alec Forbes gets aboard for his personal baptism of fire!
With blinkers at his last two course and distance winning outings, Iron Grey jumped from a MR 72 right into an MR 90 with success. While out on the handicap, he may be better than rated and warrants a thought.
The Final Thought
Every solitary one of the seven contestants could win this. That said, we are siding with the Bremner yard. They have the class horse in Celtic Fire, and a solid back up in the pacemaker Blaze Of Fire to ensure a true run race.
There will be no hanging about and he will also be ably assisted in that department by Shujaa. If those first two fluff their lines, anything can win it, and here we think particularly of Parceval and the slightly delinquent Iron Grey.
