Since I have been getting a few calls about Sabina's chances this Saturday in the Grade 1 Garden province Stakes (2nd most important race of day behind the July) and since Sabina's appearance with a shocking pic of me in this month's TOP BILLING magazine, I thought I would bring you the latest update from www.sabinapark.co.za :

This time they all have the same weight, or pretty much.  She should be in the July handicap field, but instead she gets to compete over 1600m, a distance way short of her best.  It is an exceptionally high quality field and one could only hope that all Grade 1 races had fields such as this!  Sabina's last start showed that she is almost back to her best and she is going to be in cracking good shape on July day with, for a change, a great draw.  She clearly is not the stable elect judging by the Jockey choices but Mike told me that he is confident about her chances and that she can win the race.  She has won three times at distances shorter than this, but all of those occasions were when she was two years old and I'm not sure that she still has the same acceleration as she had then.  I do know this, that she could run fantastically in this particular race and still finish sixth, and at a very best she could beat them all, Overarching included.  Overarching deserves to be hot favourite, but I don't think she'll win, and not because she has a bad draw.  Sabina used to raid Natal last year by truck and I don't believe it works well for all trainers.  She is an exceptional sort, but I would expect Sabina to beat her over 2000 m and while she is the best handicapped horse in the field, the draw and the raiding method has to give Sabina a good chance of causing a huge upset here.  I think that odds of 12/1 are good value and while once again we are somewhat limited by the options when it comes to races for her, I'm sure that she will give another gutsy performance.  If I had to price this field up, I would probably have put Sabina at 5/1 so I'll certainly have a small bet at the current price.  Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky with a July double with Dunford.  It's going to be a very exciting race and while the July will of course be exciting, like any owner who has a runner in another race, the big race for me start at 6 p.m.!