The centrepiece of the South African card this weekend is The SOUTHERN SLAPSHOT Challenge<\/I>, a Stakes race over six furlongs on fast dirt for two-year-old fillies. There are nine runners competing for the $80,000 prize.
Drawn on the rail is Champion Flower (KY)<\/B>, by freshman sire Flower Alley out of Champion Bubba (Tough Knight x Bold Ruckus). This filly, in the meguire2nd<\/I> stable, began her career on dirt and won a Maiden Special Weight race over the minimum distance at the second time of asking, with a speed figure of 70. Next she was switched to turf for an attempt at Grade Three level over five furlongs on good ground, where she finished a creditable second, beaten a length and a quarter at generous odds. Her only other start was in a Stakes race over six furlongs on turf, where she finished second, beaten one and a half lengths. Back to the dirt here, she will have S. Spence on board.
Next to her will be Love Of Diagrams (AUS)<\/B>, who is bred and trained in the delago<\/I> stable. This chestnut daughter of Testa Rossa (AUS) out of a Danehill mare has run in three previous races, all on turf. She won her debut over five furlongs in Maiden Special Weight company, then stepped up to seven furlongs for an attempt in an Allowance NW1x race, where she was a well-beaten fifth of seven. For her next race, she was brought back to five and a half furlongs in an Allowance race for non-winners of two, in which she finished a length back in second as favourite, recording her best speed figure of 74. She has A. Peel in the saddle and is the favourite here, despite this being her debut on the dirt.
The outsider in the early betting is Joins The Chase (MD)<\/B>, who runs for the inhalers<\/I> stable, one of the Fortune500<\/I> conglomerate. By Polish Miner with rather obscure breeding on the distaff side, she began her career by winning a $10,000 Maiden Claiming race over the minimum trip, from which she was claimed by current connections. She was then stepped up to Allowance company, where she finished second, recording a career best speed figure of 71 on good going. In her only other race, she finished third of four, beaten two and a quarter lengths, in a Stakes race over five and a half furlongs, but with a speed figure of only 63. She has a good jockey aboard here in the shape of H. Wilkins.
Dr Yap (CAN)<\/B> is bred and trained in by wahoo<\/I> and has run twice previously. By freshman sire Niigon out of For Cecilia (Aptitude x Mr. Prospector), she won her debut in Maiden Special Weight company over five and a half furlongs. She was then stepped up to Stakes level over the same distance, where she put up a speed figure of 75 to finish a close second. She is joint second-favourite here and will have the assistance of the course\u2019s top jockey T. Loesch.
The other joint second-favourite is Perfect Carbomb (MI)<\/B>, by Perfect Circle out of Irish Carbomb (IRE) (Giant\u2019s Causeway (IRE) x Caro (IRE)). Bred and trained in the oaklane<\/I> stable, she has run in five previous races, winning her debut in a Maiden Special Weight race over five furlongs. She then ran in three Allowance races over six furlongs, finishing closest in the middle one of these when she was beaten three-quarters of a length in second. Last time out, she finished fourth, beaten two and three-quarter lengths, in a Stakes race, also over six furlongs, in which she recorded her best speed figure to date of 73. The capable J. Smith has the ride here.
Andasham (IRE)<\/B>, a chestnut filly by Shamardal out of Anda Anda Anda (Forty Niner x Pas De Seul (GB)) is bred and trained by andatwo<\/I>. She has run three times previously, showing promise on the second of these occasions, when she recorded a speed figure of 76 to win a Maiden Special Weight race over six furlongs. However, her other two performances were well below this and she would need to be on her best form to justify the rather stingy-looking odds here. M. Zamudio will be in the saddle.
Top Soul (KY)<\/B>, by Perfect Soul (IRE) out of Top Flight (Atticus x Forty Niner), is the most experienced of these runners, having raced six times previously. After a disappointing start on turf, she was switched to dirt for a win in Maiden Special Weight company over five furlongs. She then stepped up to Stakes level, where she finished two lengths back in second over five and a half furlongs. She was well-beaten in an attempt at Grade Three level next time out, then finished third, beaten three and a half lengths, in an Allowance race for non-winners of four over five and a half furlongs. Last time out, she was last of five in a Stakes race over the same distance, recording her best speed figure of 65. F. Waldron will be on board here for butcha\u2019s greatman<\/I> stable.
Barb\u2019s Zippy (CA)<\/B>, a grey filly by Cee\u2019s Tizzy, races for jakematt\u2019s mattbarn<\/I> stable and has run five times previously. She improved to win her Maiden Special Weight race at the second attempt and was then stepped up to Stakes level, where she finished third of the seven runners over five and a half furlongs. Kept in Stakes company next time, she finished sixth of eight over six furlongs, but was only beaten by three and half lengths, the same distance as in her previous race. Her most recent start was in an Allowance race for non-winners of two over five and a half furlongs on good going, in which she recorded her best speed figure to date of 73 for a win. E. Eberhard, second in the jockeys\u2019 table here, has the ride.
Drawn on the outside is Radical Sasha T (CAN)<\/B>, who is by bargain sire Kinshasa out of The Radical T (IRE) (Theatrical (IRE) x Notebook). Running for the tcopyright<\/I> stable, part of tsyndicate<\/I> stables, she has run in three previous races. First time out, she finished second in a Maiden Special Weight race over six furlongs, beaten only a quarter of a length. She was then stepped up to Stakes company, where she recorded her best speed figure of 76 to finish a creditable third, beaten one and three-quarter lengths. Most recently, she was well beaten when tried in a Grade Two race over six and a half furlongs. Still looking to lose her maiden tag here, she will have T. Lopez aboard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nine runners go to post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/452"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}