Champion trainer Sean Tarry has the new season off to a very respectable start with a 20% win rate and he and jockey Raymond Danielson can add another winner to their tally when Silver Spectrum lines up in Race 7 on the Vaal Classic track on Thursday.

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019
This four-year-old gelding has only raced six times in the space of 13 months and could have his issues but then many of Silvano’s prodigy get better with age.

Silver Spectrum has a record of two wins and three places so when he does run, it’s with plenty vigour. This MR 88 Handicap over 1600 should be right up his street.

His last race was 77 days back and it was over 2000m at this course. He was beaten two lengths by Diamond Dancer who has performed well over that distance. However, it might have been a touch too far for Silver Spectrum at this stage of his career and he is sure to enjoy the drop in distance. In addition, he was found to be coughing after the race.

He won his only race over 1600m – that was in June – but all of his other runs have been over 1400m and less. Danielson has ridden him once before but that was on debut and is the only race in which he failed to place.

Once you look past him a number of horses are capable of winning. I Am Batman has been knocking on the door and ran on nicely last time over 1600m on the Inside track when a two-length third behind Lone Survivor. It is worth noting, however, that when Silver Spectrum won two runs back over the same course and distance, he completed the 1600m in 97.16sec, with 58.5kg on his back.

Lone Survivor ran the course in 98.84sec and I Am Batman was a further two lengths back, carrying 54.5kg.
Paul Peter’s stable is another in deadly form and his liaison with jockey Warren Kennedy has been nothing short of amazing. At the time of writing, Kennedy has ridden 184 horses for the stable, and has produced 41 winners, 27 seconds, 21 third and 18 fourths.

Peter saddles three runners in this event and it is interesting Kennedy has chosen Ragoon as opposed to Defy Gravity who has the best form of the three. However, this will be the first run for Ragoon since joining the Peter stable and this five-year-old son of Trippi has produced some impressive wins earlier in his career.

They say a change is as good as a holiday and perhaps Ragoon had found some new vim since changing stables.
Fans of six-time champion jockey Piere Strydom will be delighted to see his name in the race card, and he could get off the mark quickly with a win on Ashley Fortune-trained Anatolio in Race 2. Strydom has spent some time riding in Mauritius and has not ridden in South Africa since May.

Tab Online