Full fields of 16 runners are set to compete in each of the two Grade 1 events at Kenilworth Racecourse on New Year’s Day where R1-million will be up for grabs in the Queen’s Plate and the Cape Of Good Hope Paddock Stakes .

 

South Africa ’s racing sensation, Tyson, heads the field for the R600 000 Queen’s Plate where he takes on 15 opponents at weight-for-age over 1 600 metres. Success will put him in line to win the lucrative SA All Stars Golden Mile Series of which the Queen’s Plate is the first leg.

 

Tyson already has one leg in place in the SA All Stars Champion Of Champions Series having won the Gommagomma Summer Cup and, after the Queen’s Plate, his next mission with be the J&B Met and leg two in the Champion of Champions Series.

 

In spite of the outstanding ability he has shown, Tyson will be tested again by some useful milers with the field including the Dean Kannemeyer coupling of Redcarpet Style and Roman Charger, Joey Ramsden’s Winter Solstice and Geoff Woodruff’s Promisefrommyheart who meets him on 6.5kg better terms.

 

Selvan Moodley’s Tamarino Bay , who looked set to cause a major upset in the Gommagomma Summer Cup, meets Tyson on 3kg better terms and over the shorter trip to the Turffontein race, he  could again be dangerous.

 

The R300 000 Cape Of Good Hope Paddock Stakes is also a weight-for-age event over 1 800 metres and 10 of the 16 runners qualify for the Bloodstock SA R100 000 bonus should they win. This is a field of the highest quality and Mike de Kock has called in his entire top riding team of Weichong Mawing, Kevin Shea and Jannie Bekker to do duty on the day.

 

Mawing will be aboard the classy Ilha Da Vitoria who finished third in the Gommagomma Summer Cup and won the Elevation Stakes before that and Shea will partner the gutsy Angelina. The other member of the team to be ridden by Bekker is the three-year-old filly, Irridescence, who won her three starts in KwaZulu-Natal prior to finishing unplaced in The Table Bay Hotel Fillies Guineas.

 

Geoff Woodruff goes into battle with his star filly Royal Aproval and Dean Kannemeyer fields three classy fillies in Icy Air, Princess Kay and Fort Belvedere .

 

Joey Ramsden will not be out of things with his two runners, Sarabande and The Table Bay Hotel Cape Fillies Guineas winner, Shadow Dancing. Brett Crawford trains the eye-catching Australian import, Sailing To Rio, winner of 4 of her 6 starts and Mike Bass has a strong hand as well with three runners in Twister, Joshua’s Princess and Traviata.

 

With top fields for both events, racing in the Queen’s Plate and the Cape Of Good Hope Paddock Stakes look set to get 2005 off to a sensational racing year with a promise of outstanding racing throughout the Western Cape Summer Season.