Mary Slack’s promising there-year-old filly Noor arrived in Cape Town on Wednesday for participation in Saturday’s Gr1 World Sports Betting Cape Fillies Guineas at Kenilworth.
Tough filly – Noor
There was a hiccough on her way, however, and Mike de Kock reported from his Cape base: “The float carrying Noor got held up in traffic. It was delayed for about five hours which made the normally long trip from Johannesburg even more testing, but she got here in good shape, she looks well.
“If the extra hours on the road affected her it will only show in the race on Saturday, but with 48 hours to go there is every chance she will be 100% come race time.”
Unbeaten in two impressive runs to date, Noor faces a competitive line-up of rivals including Silver Mountain and Bela-Bela but Mike felt that she’d have a say in the finish: “Noor is a tough and aggressive filly. She has quite an attitude and can get excitable, but if all goes well I am quite hopeful of a big run. She’s a smart filly and I like her form, she’s very capable.”
Entisaar – back to speed
Mike will be saddling two others on the day and said: “Entisaar comes into the Southern Cross Stakes on weight-for-age terms and she’s back down the straight, we saw in the Choice Carriers 1400 that she’s probably at her best up to 1200m. There are some question marks about last season’s two-year-old form as we’ve noted. Entisaar has to contend with top graded winners from older generations including Carry On Alice so this race is her first real test. It will shed some light on how competitive she will prove to be later this season.”
The imported Mooghamir, an impressive Maiden winner on sand at the Vaal in September, has been entered for an 1800m Handicap and Mike commented: “He’s a Derby prospect, we’ll be looking for a good run here.”
In-form Anthony Delpech will be flying down to ride the stable’s runners on Saturday.
www.mikedekockracing.com
