Raaees on the rise
HE regally bred Raaees gave notice that he could become a force to be reckoned with later in the season when running out a narrow winner of his maiden earlier this month. Pumping a horse that has only had two outings and having just squeaked a maiden victory is generally unwise - but necks are there to be put on the block but hoping you don’t lose your head!
Raaees, a son of multiple Gr1 winning Duke Of Marmalade who can count the 2 400m King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes among his victories, steps out over a “mile” in the second at Clairwood tomorrow and should get the Bi-Pot off to a winning start.
Mike de Kock’s Australian-bred colt has a pedigree laced with stamina and the fact that he has been a late starter and that his first two outings have been over 1 400m suggests that the stable have taken time with their charge.
Given his pedigree and with the lucrative Highveld season on the horizon and Champions Season still some five months away, Raaees looks to have been nursed along for a crack at the big money.
Although only scrapping home
Tahead of Gemini Gold in his maiden at Scottsville, he looked a beaten horse 50m from the line but galloped on res- olutely under Warren Kennedy to snatch what at one stage looked to be an unlikely victory. Given that show- ing and the extra distance tomorrow he should come on even further and he rates the one to beat.
The De Kock stable looks in line for a second winner on the day when Captain Lars lines up in the fifth. Having his second run after a break, Captain Lars took command a long way out over tomorrow’s course and distance and put five lengths between himself and second-placed Fort Bellini.
Lightly raced, he had been knocking at the door for his second win earlier in the season on the Highveld but a healthy break and the switch to De Kock’s Summerveld yard appear to have paid dividends.
Dennis Drier has had an up-anddown season during the Cape Summer. A number of his high profile runners have “gone wrong” at most inopportune times but those setbacks have been tempered by some excellent victories including Viva La Var’s effort in the Need For Speed Sprint at Kenilworth on Saturday.
Stable rider Sean Cormack has also been making the most of his opportunities in the Western Cape and landed a treble on Saturday. Cormack will be home tomorrow to partner the Driertrained filly Kitco who looks the part in the seventh.
A winner of two of her three starts, she took a huge leap in class from maiden winner to beating the useful Garibondi at only her first start in handicap company. She paid the price as far as the ratings are concerned but she looks to have enough dry powder left to record a hat-trick of victories. Along with Raaees and Captain Lars, they could turn the Bi-pot into a threelegged bet.