Sweet Tooth. The Snaith’s Cotton Candy appears to hold the upper hand
The local juvenile form strength will be given an early test on Friday with the running of the R150 000 Listed East Cape Fillies Nursery over 1200m at Fairview. Local star sire Sail From Seattle has five of the eleven runners but there are two talented Cape visitors to contend with.
Gone West’s son Sail From Seattle stands at the beautiful Seaview Road Ascot Stud of Mrs Rose Mary Anne Parker and Dr Ashley Parker and really has made a flying start to his career. And he has the blood credentials, so we should hardly be surprised about that fact.
He is from the great family full of champions: Hello Seattle, Classy ‘n Smart, Dance Smartly, Smart Strike (Sire of Curlin), Sky Classic etc and also made his own bit of history when becoming the sire of the first ever Polytrack race run in South Africa.
His gelded son Savhara provided him with the Poly winner and this followed an earlier first crop treble at Durbanville, and another quickfire double at the country course.
Early Impact
His first winners include his Gr1 icebreaker, impressive Cape Guineas winner Elusive Gold, East Cape Champion Seattle Storm, the unbeaten (and now exported) My Nephew Eric and the Gr1 performer Tommy Gun.
Popular in the sales ring, Sail From Seattle (whose first crop sold up to R1 000 000) was the fifth leading sire, by aggregate, at the 2013 Emperors Palace National 2YO Sale.
He is one of over 100 stakes winners for his sire, Gone West, who is also responsible for leading sires Speightstown, Elusive Quality, Grand Slam, Zamindar, and the late, great Western Winter.
Cape Town Challenge
Two Cape visitors could stand in the way of another stakes notch for him on Friday, though. Justin Snaith leads the national trainer’s log at the moment and he send out the Trippi filly Cotton Candy, the only two time winner in the race. She beat Hollywood Sunset at her last start on very soft going by 4,25 when giving away 3kgs and now meets the daughter of Lateral at level weights.
That makes Cotton Candy’s prospects look very strong and the manner of her win when showing pace and then powering clear, augurs well for the additional 100m. Glen Kotzen made a flying start last Friday shortly after the opening of his new satellite yard at Fairview and he saddles the Wilgerbosdrift Stuf owned and bred daughter of Kildonan, Rosier, who won well on her debut.
She showed guts and courage to beat the odds on Seventh Rock debutante, Ready To Rock and her highly thought of stablemate, Goldandsilver.
Greeff Trio
Alan Greeff saddles a trio of Artic Sails, Ciao Caro and Dancing Natasha. Artic Sails beat Hollywood Sunset on his January debut and has only his second run here. He was well supported in the betting and showed a good turn of foot to win with a measure of maturity.
A daughter of Antonius Pius, Ciao Caro won well on her 800m debut, but was then beaten 9 lengths by Cotton Candy at her next start. She has plenty of leeway to make up on that effort. Dancing Natasha is still a maiden and should struggle in this company.
Smith Duo
Gavin Smith saddles Lateral’s recent first locally bred winner Hollywood Sunset and the maiden, Fairy Parade. Hollywood Sunset has been consistent in her four runs to date, with three seconds and a win last time out. While she is an obviously talented sort, she appears well held by Cotton Candy on her Valentine’s Day run when well beaten by the Snaith runner when receiving the benefit of a weight pull.
On the flipside of the coin, she is obviously improving and can be expected to be right on top of the action. Fairy Parade runs at level weights with her stablemate who gave her 4kgs and beat her by 6,10 lengths when she made her debut. The daughter of Sail From Seattle will have to improve to challenge.
Paddock Players
Grant Paddock saddles the one time winner, Tasha’s Girl and the placed maiden, Vanishing Sails. Tasha’s Girl is a daughter of Lithuanian who won very well on debut when beating nothing less than Hollywood Sunset(also making debut) by 3,50 lengths over 800m.
Tasha’s Girl then ran a distance back on Valentine’s Day (in soft going) and is held by many here on that poor effort.
Unknown Quantity
Vanishing Sails ran an excellent race on debut a fortnight ago when just beaten by Hollywood Sunset and may just lack the experience to win against the more tried professionals. She will also have benefitted from her first effort though and could realistically place at best.
Mitch Wiese saddles the Scott Brothers bred Daring Do, who was beaten 2,50 lengths by the more experienced Hollywood Sunset on a fair debut. Steven Janse Van Rensburg saddles the Danika Stud bred Ivory Sail, who was slow away and ran green on debut seven weeks ago.
Mathematics
The Cape challenger Cotton Candy looks well in here and has most of the field well held. The unknown quantities are Glen Kotzen’s debut winner Rosier and the Greeff runner Artic Sail. Both are largely unknown quantities and could be equal to the challenge.
