The Gr3 Spring Spree Stakes, the only graded race run this weekend in South Africa, will be run as the seventh race at Turffontein on Saturday.
A 1200m contest, the 2017 Spring Spree Stakes looks a very competitive affair with more than a few runners seemingly in with a fighting chance.

Top weight Champagne Haze (Kahal) has to carry 63 kgs here, no easy task but is the class act in the race and comes into the race off a close up fifth in the Gr1 Mercury Sprint (from a bad draw) last time out.

Will Pays (Imperial Stride) has a win over the course and distance to his name but is another set to carry a big weight (60.5 kgs) and he is 1.5 kgs better off with Pure Blonde (Kahal) who beat the gelding by three parts of a length last time out.
The progressive Pure Blonde is bidding for a hatrick having won his last two on the bounce. The son of former Equus Champion Legally Blonde is another who enjoys the course and distance but is worse off at the weights with Captain Aldo (Captain Al) whom he meets again here.

Eastern Cape raider Classify (Sail From Seattle) makes his first appearance outside his native province but has done very little wrong, having won or placed in eight of his nine outings. Another from a bang in-form stable, Classify is the unknown factor here.
Spring Steel (Kahal) a winner of his only outing over the course and distance, was second last time out but will enjoy the extra 200m and does have only 52.5kgs on his back, while bottom weight Sporting Monarch (Rebel King) finished under three lengths off Pure Blonde last time out and now meets the latter on 3.5kgs better terms.

Pure Blonde’s trainer Alec Laird is well represented in the race with two other runners, Amazing Strike (Ideal World) and Romi’s Boy (Querari), representing the yard. Amazing Strike, whose rider Francois Herholdt returns after a successful Saudi Arabia stint, is slightly better off at the weights with the likes of Will Pays and Captain Aldo and should run well here, while Romi’s Boy makes his first start since running fourth in the Durban Dash in June. A winner over the course and distance, Romi’s Boy is the soul of consistency having only once been out of the money in eight outings.

Angel’s Power (Miesque’s Approval), runner up in this race 12 months ago, enjoys the course and distance and could be a threat with Piere Strydom, who has won his last two outings on the gelding, up.

Progressive four-year-old Maximizer (Querari) drops back in trip having won the Listed Darley Arabian, on polytrack, over 1600m and has won three of his last four outings. Could be better than rated and is from an in-form yard.

Former Gr2 Hawaii Stakes winner Captain Aldo is bidding to get back in the winners enclosure after recording three seconds in a row. He is another conceding weight to the majority of the runners.

Finchatton (Right Approach) looks held on his run behind Pure Blonde but is better off at the weights with that Alec Laird trained runner.