Mission To Mars is back in orbit

Jack Milner

Another season has come to an end. We now know all the winners, the losers, the champions and the vanquished.

But as Jerome Kern declared in his famous 1936 song, it’s time to take a deep breath, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again.

Yes, the new season begins tomorrow, all the gauges reset and click back to zero.

The first meeting of the 2026/27 season will be staged on the Standside track at Turffontein on Saturday and the eight-race card is imbued with some promising bankers and competitive fields so there are many opportunities to have a profitable start to the season.

It is not always wise to support a maiden winner in his next start, especially as he moves into quite a high-level handicap. But sometimes the performance of that maiden winner was so imposing that he stands out as a possible feature-race contender.

That is the case with Stuart Pettigrew-trained Mission To Mars who romped to victory in only his second start. He made his debut over 1500m at the Vaal in June and everything that could go wrong did, and after sitting way off the pace flew up late to finish a 0.60-length second behind Brave Waam.

His second outing was over 1600m at this track and he just walked home, beating Uncle Bob by 10.75 lengths.

There were four races over 1600m at the course that day and Mission To Mars’ time was the second fastest of the day by some way. The only faster time was set by Money Heist who won a Pinnacle Stakes and had to be ridden out to win.

Mission To Mars is an Irish-bred import and is a son of brilliant Sea The Stars, who is not only one the best performing horses of recent times but his progeny have won multiple Grade 1 races.

The detractors of Mission To Mars will point out that he turns six years old tomorrow but that is not an accurate assessment as he was sired in the northern hemisphere and by moving south had a year added to his age. All the travelling and preparation have taken their toll as well but he does look talented and looks hard to beat in Race 6, a MR 96 Handicap over 2000m.

On breeding Mission To Mars will appreciate the additional 400m so should be even better over this distance. He carries 55kg and will be ridden by Philasande Mxoli once again.

 

Jack Milner’s selections

Race 1: 4 Jack’s Legacy, 3 Greenhilsofjamaica, 5 Totheplaceibelong, 2 Without Remorse

Race 2: 5 Trompe L’Oeil, 1 Geostorm, 3 One Tiger, 6 Sherlock Holmes

Race 3: 2 Pivotal Role, 1 Mrs Stormiatrix, 7 Banyan, 5 Lonely As A Cloud

Race 4: 1 Almond Sea, 5 Karate Kid, 3 Mount Pinatubo, 4 African Pride

Race 5: 5 Dual Prophecy, 1 Dark Silver, 6 Guerilla Warfare, 2 Culturati

Race 6: 5 Mission To Mars, 1 The Playboy Bomber, 2 Royal Edition, 7 Prince Of Kildare

Race 7: 5 Harun Al Rashid, 1 Orange County, 2 Sky Pilot, 4 Winding Power

Race 8: 4 Rising Eagle, 5 Southampton, 3 Longsword, 6 Spirit Of Gabz

 

BEST BET

Race 6: 5 Mission To Mars

VALUE BET

Race 5: 5 Dual Prophecy

BEST SWINGER

Race 8 4×5

 

BIPOT

R243

Leg 1: 3, 4, 5

Leg 2: 1, 3, 5

Leg 3: 1, 2, 7

Leg 4: 1, 3, 5

Leg 5: 5

Leg 6: 1, 2, 5

 

PLACE ACCUMULATOR

R144

Leg 1: 1, 5

Leg 2: 1, 2

Leg 3: 1, 5

Leg 4: 1, 5, 6

Leg 5: 5

Leg 6: 1, 2, 5

Leg 7: 4, 5

 

PICK 6

R1008

Leg 1: 1, 2, 7

Leg 2: 1, 3, 4,5

Leg 3: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7

Leg 4: 5

Leg 5: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Leg 6: 4, 5

 

JACKPOT 1

R168

Leg 1: 1, 3, 4,5

Leg 2: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7

Leg 3: 5

Leg 4: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

 

JACKPOT 2

R84

Leg 1: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7

Leg 2: 5

Leg 3: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Leg 4: 4, 5