From The Horse's Mouth - Mark Van Deventer

The two strongest performances measured by speed figures on Saturday’s Turffontein card came from Calla Lagoon s/s 97 and Griselda s/s 96.

Griselda was game to hold out Good Day Sunshine s/s 95 who made a big move from near the back of the field. Sean Tarry’s front runner stuck to her task, eking out a head margin victory, just as she did over the same rival in the Nursery back in April 2026.

Both these youngsters should fare well during the Highveld Spring.

Calla Lagoon has now won his last two starts, with figures in the high 90’s. The 5YO is an imported son of New Bay, trained by a real shrewdie, Stuart Pettigrew.

His charge had to be driven out down the center of the straight to eventually overhaul Radio Star s/s 96, who raced far apart on the inside rail.

Uzwano, trained by Dean Kannemeyer, won the Michaelmas at Greyville’s Sunday meeting, quickening briskly (23.1 seconds for the final 400m, in the 1900m race) to outpoint Narina Trogon. The stiff runner up also closed sharply from dead last (22.9 seconds), only to miss narrowly.

The importance of a turn of foot was also illustrated in the preceding race won by Peter Muscutt’s, City of Light. Unlike Uzwano who first jogged along near the back of the pack before turning on the engines, City of Light led early, then gave a superior kick (23.1 seconds last 400m) to clear away from pursuers.

Though different positional tactics were used, in both cases it was finishing speed which sealed the outcome, which is so often the case in races on the lawn.

Race 8, a Progress Plate, was another that set up as jog/sprint. The mare, Scarlet Macaw can accelerate briskly when in the mood and she used that attribute, which propelled her to second spot in the Cape Fillies Guineas of 2024 behind Fatal Flaw, to just get by Native Ruler, who led for a long way.

False run turf races can lead to clustered finishes. Chestnut Bomber was only a neck away in third. Even Whispering Death, who was slow out by a couple of lengths after totally blowing the jump, was able to catch up and get into the race. He was a mere 1.2 lengths behind at the wire.

Weight handicappers, who base their entire calculation solely on finishing positions, expose themselves to creating erroneous ratings if they fail to take the effect of extremely slow early pace into account.

And speed figures, if based purely on adjusted final times or track variants, may also be suspect unless pace ratios/sectional upgrades are judiciously incorporated.

Nuance, detail, context and wise interpretations matter a great deal when trying to peg thoroughbred merit.

It may seem an obscure technical point but in truth, some races are practically worthless from a ratings point of view or as a reference for meaningful form study.

Reason being, muddling, false paced affairs don’t necessarily reveal the true ability of the contestants. Said partly in jest - it is often best to pretend they did not happen.

If taken at face value, they just scramble attempts at ratings and instead contribute to misleading weight classifications or speed figures.