A South Easter wind starting at 31 km per hour at midday and rising to 37 km per hour by 18h00 has been forecast on Saturday at Kenilworth which could have an effect on the outcome of the Grade 1 Betting World Cape Flying, which features a titanic clash between three of the world’s best sprinters, J J The Jet Plane, Val De Ra and What A Winter.

Some pundits say that the 1000m race will now be more like a 1200m event, especially considering the Kenilworth sprint course is the toughest in the country.

This should play into the hands of the four-year-old What A Winter, an exceptional 1200m horse, but who has the versatility to have won the Cape Flying last season as well as the Grade 2 Selangor Cup over 1600m.

J J The Jet Plane, now seven-years-old, is also best suited to 1200m, although he has won the Grade 1 Computaform Sprint over the very quick 1000m Turffontein course and also won the Grade 3 Graham Beck Stakes over the tough Turffontein 1400m as a young three-year-old.

J J returns from a layoff due to a core lesion of a lower suspensory ligament and only the race will tell whether this has blunted his exceptional cruising speed, from which he still manages to find another turn of foot in the closing stages of his races.

Val De Ra, whose only defeat in eleven starts came in the Grade 1 SA Fillies Sprint over 1200m when she was three-years-old, won over 1300m as a two-year-old and won the SA Fillies Sprint last year.

However, her most famous win to date, in the Computaform Sprint, illustrated that her chief weapon is her tremendous gatespeed and early pace which is followed by another kick when challenged in the latter stages.

The 1000m distance is therefore the five-year-old mare’s optimum trip as it gives the opposition less time to make up the leeway.

However, her trainer Dennis Drier said earlier this week that he would not be concerned if a South Easter was blowing.

She did illustrate in the SA Fillies Championship last year that she can use her extremely high natural cruising speed to equal effect and still find a response when asked for extra over a tough 1200m race, and this might have been the image he had in mind when saying that.