SPORTING Post reckons this Saturday’s R400 000 Gr2 Colorado King Stakes to be run over 2000m on the standside track at Turffontein is a really tight call. Here is their preview of the plum picking on a decent feature race card at the old mining town’s merry hangout.

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The programme offers punters plenty of variety and another quality Saturday of racing. While it may not rank on the level of Classic Day last weekend, there are plenty of fascinating sub plots

Mike de Kock’s Captain Lars (headline photo) is a four-year-old gelding patently on the way up the ladder to better things. He faces his toughest career test when he takes on a small but quality field in the Colorado King Stakes.

De Kock and his omnipresent challenger Sean Tarry saddle five of the eight runners carded in the Colorado King Stakes and it won’t be any surprise to see the two top yards dominating the show.

Captain Lars and his arch rival Halve The Deficit meet again and with the feature score at one each, Saturday’s race will be a psychological duel of note. The former had to play second fiddle when going down a short head to Halve The Deficit in the Wolf Power 1600 but then slammed the Tarry runner in the Listed Drum Star run over 200m further.

They now step up a further 200m here and with Halve The Deficit 2kgs better off, it could get very interesting indeed. Captain Lars needs to show he will stay the 2000m and Delpech may have to ride him with a lot more restraint.

Halve The Deficit is a smart son of Right Approach who gets the services of Weichong Marwing. A winner of five races, he may have to walk in the shadow of his fast improving stablemate, Cagiva, who has Piere Strydom booked to ride him. It is probably fair to assume that he could have ridden any one of the Tarry trio, as he has also been riding Halve The Deficit. Cagiva is a handsome son of Silvano, who has won his last two starts and just seems to get better all the time. Two runs back he ran off an 89 and now finds himself rated 103. He beat the smart Wylie Hall with ease last time and he has won over 2000m, so we know he stays.

The third of the Tarry runners is the top weight The Hangman who is making slow progress in his recovery after an injury enforced layoff following the 2012 Cape Guineas. Cagiva seems to have his measure. Mike Azzie’s Brooks–Club silenced his detractors last time when winning a cracker of a race beating Principled. He appears held by Captain Lars on his penultimate outing but now that he has found his winning feet he could build on his earlier promise.

De Kock has engaged Anton Marcus to pilot the beautiful grey mare Ilha Bela, who returns to racing action after a nine week rest following a rather ordinary Cape season. She ran just over three lengths behind River Crossing in the J&B Jet Stayers on Met Day and while it was not an entirely disgraceful effort, she failed to kick on when asked. Marcus would probably not have accepted a no- hoper ride and there are obviously hopes that she will bounce back after having being freshened up.

Ormond Ferraris’ Knock On Wood is a half kilo better off with Cagiva for a 3,75 length beating last time out. He has a lot to do to overturn that result with the improving four-year-old and can only hope for place money at best.

Weiho Marwing saddles The Barbadian, who jumps from a nice draw. The son of Mullins Bay has won three of his nine starts but gets thrown squarely into the deep end in this company and looks to have an impossible fight at the weights.

While Captain Lars and Halve The Deficit renew rivalry again and should provide the major portion of the entertainment, they could both be upstaged by the very progressive Cagiva. Strydom would have chosen the ride and we must thus assume that he is the stable elect. It will be a closely fought race with Cagiva the likely ham on the sandwich.

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