The Girls May Have It – but…

Saturday’s OK Grand Challenge (GR1) is not short of Borrowdale Park stars – but the more I look at the 2023 OK field the more interesting some of the female contingent gets.

What a glorious bunch.

Together, Lily Blue, Dindingwe, True Beauty and latterly, Jacky Sparrow, have, since 2019, provided most of the excitement, locally, and may even be up for more of the same this week.

True Beauty, winner of the 2022 Castle Tankard had, unfortunately, to be scratched from the 2023 race, but she is set to run in the OK Grand Challenge, having run the closest of seconds to Seven Seas in this race last year. The daughter of Skitt Skizzle carried 55.5 kgs when she won the 2022 Tankard and, in this race, will shoulder 60 kgs, as will Mr Greenlight and Only Him. 

This means True Beauty will be giving her old rival, Dindingwe, 3 kgs on Saturday – which is a tough ask given their performance in the three-year-old Classics at level weights.  True Beauty came into her own at four, but that said I was impressed by Dindingwe’s second to Ideal View in the 2023 Tankard when Dindingwe went down by a quarter of a length, conceding 3 kgs.

Ideal View’s 2023 Tankard victory was impressive but his stablemate Down To Business (also on 52kgs) was only 0.35 lengths back, while Raining Again (54kgs) was 1.60 lengths behind.  Raining Again has beaten both Down To Business and Jacky Sparrow before and will meet both Ideal View and Down To Business on better terms here.

I must admit to being surprised when Jacky Sparrow headed the OK opening betting, as winning the Fillies Classic is far from what she is likely to encounter in the OK Grand Challenge.  However, Jacky Sparrow has won five of her six starts and could prove me wrong. It is not the filly’s fault she has lacked opportunities to shine.

And no, I haven’t forgotten Lily Blue – and I am aware that plenty of her fans fear she is “no longer interested and may not choose to race.” This may be true but watch out if this 6-year-old mare is in the mood. Carrying 56,5 kgs, Lily Blue was 3.60 lengths behind the 2023 Tankard winner, and here Ideal View will receive 1 kg from Lily Blue not 4.5 kgs as before.

One could drive oneself crazy comparing weights, and so on, but just admit any of the entrants could, on their day, win this race. Start making a case for one runner and another quickly puts his or her oar in.

Of course, I will be hoping one of our girls gets lucky one more time.

Photographs Zimbabwe Equine News: From left – True Beauty, Dindingwe, Lily Blue Below: Jacky Sparrow.