Fantastic racing is on the cards in the four Grade 1 feature races on Golden Horse Casino Sprint Raceday at Scottsville Racecourse on May 29 with the cream of the country’s sprinting thoroughbreds taking part.

Champion trainer Geoff Woodruff has included three of his exciting stars in the racemeeting, accepting with the Jalberry and Costa Marfil in the SA Fillies Sprint and the three-year-old Cataloochee in the R400 000 Golden Horse Casino Sprint.

Corne Spies has accepted with his unbeaten Lecture filly, Rock Opera, in the R350 000 Allan Robertson Fillies Championship and Ormond Ferraris has decided to run his five-year-old American-bred mare, Overarching, in the R300 000 South African Fillies Sprint.

The Golden Horse Casino Sprint and the Allan Robertson Fillies Championship have full fields of 16 runners with 15 taking part in the Gold Reef Casino Resorts Medallion and 13 in the South African Fillies Sprint.

Charles Laird is taking on the younger Woodruff runner in the Golden Horse Casino Sprint with his “veteran” Nhlavini and the testing Scottsville course with its steady climb to the finish could work in favour of the older horse who has stayed beyond the 1 200 metre trip in the past.

Local hero Nossob, who was two lengths behind Cataloochee last time out, meets the Woodruff runner on 3kg better terms and must now be rated a contender.

In the Gold Reef Casino Resorts Medallion, Charles Laird’s Ndabeni, who was second to Tiza in The Nursery and finished a neck ahead of Carnadore, is likely to top the betting boards but there are some other very nice juveniles in the field including Zimbabwean-bred Let’s Rock And Roll who was an easy winner of his only start. He is trained by Paul Matchett who will have a line on the field through Tiza.

Betting on the Allan Robertson Fillies Championship is likely to be dominated by Corne Spies’ Rock Opera who has won her three races in a canter. She has already accounted for a few of those she meets in this race but there are a number of other unbeaten or well-formed fillies and this race could produce a thrilling finish.

The other unbeaten fillies are Glen Kotzen’s Alexander Rose, Pat Lunn’s Bold Ellinore, Dave Goss’ Cash Run and Mike Miller’s Dark Amber. Their full potential has yet to be explored which sets the stage for a brilliant contest.

The South African Fillies Sprint looks on paper to be at the mercy of Overarching who has the versatility that has seen her win over 1 200 metres and a mile in her last two starts. She will be doing good work up the incline over the final 200 metres and looks hard to beat.

But Scottsville has been the downfall of many top horses over the years and among the opposition is Alan Greeff’s filly Silver Arc who two years ago caused one of the biggest upsets when she won the Allan Robertson Fillies Championship.

There are some classy fillies and mares in the field and they will help to ensure that this event is also a thrilling encounter.