A touch of Romance at the Vaal

FORM: TUSCAN ROMANCE HAS BLOSSOMED SINCE ARRIVING ON THE HIGHVELD

- Jack Milner

While tomorrow's Vaal card contains five Maiden Plates and three handicaps, there is an appealing bill of fare on offer.

There are some well-performed runners in action, many of whom coming back from a layoff. There are others who have only won maidens recently but could make vast improvement.

Tuscan Romance falls into the latter category. Trained by James Crawford, the four-year-old daughter of Master Of My Fate began her racing career in the Western Cape and in her first 11 starts, she really only ran one shocker, at that was when she finished 13.85 lengths behind Kleinzee over 1500m at Hollywoodbets Durbanville on 8 March.

Other than that, she finished second in her first six starts and was tried over all distances from 1200m to 1800m. In fact, she even ran a promising 1.80-length third behind Double Dash at HWB Kenilworth, running on strongly.