Do punters have to take account of a wide draw on the Fairview Polytrack?
It doesn’t always seem like that if you take a look at the meeting of 23 April on this surface, suggests Henk Steenkamp.
Lukas Bester was the first jockey to show the way, winning from draw 12 out of 14 runners over 1900m.
Lyle Hewitson won over the same distance, drawn 14 out of 16, and Teaque Gould was at his very best over the shorter 1200m, winning from draw 12 in a field of 16.
A good draw is better than a bad draw (Pic- Pauline Herman Photography)
Dylan Lerena put the cherry on the cake with a pickup ride in the last – winning from draw 16 out of 16 over 1300m.
Bester points out that a jockey can overcome a wide draw on the Poly, but “things have to go your way”.
“It depends what is in the race. If there is not much pace on your inside, you can overcome a wide draw. It gets very difficult over the shorter distances,” he explained.
When Bester won on The Summons, he also referred to a game plan and his ride was praised by trainer Gavin Smith.
“It was a peach of a ride. It is not easy when you draw out wide on this track,” Smith said in his post-race interview.
After Hewitson won on Mifid Two, he acknowledged that he was worried about his draw. He mentioned that luck plays a role in winning from a wide draw on the Poly.
Smith was again the “lucky” trainer and said it was a top ride from Hewitson. He felt the key was that Hewitson got the filly “going early” in the race.
Gould said “things just worked out right for me” in his race and gave the credit for overcoming the wide draw to the mare Natural Jade, trained by Juan Nel.
After his 16 out of 16 win, Lerena thought the key was that the mare Selailai (also trained by Nel) wasn’t outpaced in the early stages of the 1300m race.
In some of the other races there are fancied runners drawn wide and although the jockeys showed what they can do, punters would do well to keep comments like “luck, not easy, worried, doubts” in mind when placing their bets.
The first race is off at 12h30 and the WSB Poly Challenge 1600m is race 7 at 15h55.
Enjoy!
