NARINA TROGON has had his rating increased to 97 from 91 following his comfortable win in the Listed Kings Cup at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Sunday. The Handicappers believed that third placed, IMILENZEYOKUDUDUMA, made for the most suitable line horse and as such, his rating remains unchanged on 105. In rating the race this way, second placed CELESTIAL CITY also runs to his rating of 92, effectively making him a line horse as well.
CYBER TIME was the only other runner apart from the winner to receive a rating’s increase and he goes up to 87 from 85. This partial increase is due to the specific conditions of this race that do not allow for more than 2-pounds increase for placed runners.
There were merit rating drops for four runners in this race. QUEUE WING is slightly down to 94 from 95 and PASSAGE OF POWER is down to 89 from 91. MEXICAN PETE and WINTER GAMES also received 2 pounds drops each, from 98 to 96 and from 103 to 101 respectively.
East Cape Sprint Cup (Listed)
COUNTDOWN has had his rating adjusted to 108 from 107 following his victory in the East Cape Sprint Cup at Fairview racecourse on Friday. Here, it was fifth placed EVIES FIRST who was deemed to make for the most suitable line horse and his rating remains unchanged on 99.
There were ratings increases for two more runners in this race. Despite running to higher marks both second placed, THE WINTER LAKE and fourth placed WHATEVER NEXT had to be capped to a 4-points increase. This is due to the specific race conditions that prohibit the Handicappers from adjusting placed horses by more than 4 points.
No fewer than 4 horses received merit rating drops in this event. CLIFF TOP sees his rating drop to 110 from 113, INHERIT THE RAIN was trimmed to 100 from 101, SILVER FALCON received a minor drop from 116 to 115 and lastly, SMORGASBORD dropped from 106 to 103.
East Cape Guineas (Listed)
FAIRY KNIGHT=12.0pt has had his rating raised to 105 from 99 after easily accounting for his rivals in the East Cape Guineas over 1600m at Fairview on Friday. The Handicappers were unanimous in their view, that second placed, ZIL MORIS made for the most suitable line horse to rate this race. Consequently, his rating remains unchanged at 102.
There were no other upward merit rating adjustments in this event. However, third placed ZOOMIE was dropped to 101 from 103 and HAT’S PRIDE was dropped by 1 point to 99 from 100.
