The Avontuur Estate Cape Fillies Guineas is the country’s most coveted prize for 3-year-old fillies and the 2012 edition appears to be a three-way contest, dominated by a clutch of really exciting runners.

Trainer Mike de Kock experienced a rare reverse at last Saturday’s Summer Cup meeting but he looks well set to make up for that with his pairing of Rumya and Festival Of Fire. In a race where the draw is often a deal-breaker, they have secured the two inside berths, a factor which sealed their inclusion in this field, as de Kock had made it clear before the race that he would not send them down to Cape Town with they drew poorly.

Choosing between the two stablemates is not easy. Rumya, unbeaten in three starts, looked a star in the making when winning the Gr 1 Golden Slipper at her second career outing. What caught the eye was the blistering turn of foot she showed, coming from seven or eight lengths back to mow down the field. She was then rested until last month, making her seasonal debut in a Graduation Plate at Turffontein. The bare form of that race doesn’t look too great as Rumya only just scraped home from Amber Orchid and the latter subsequently ran well below par in the Fillies Mile last Saturday. However, it goes without saying that Rumya would have been nowhere near her peak on her reappearance and she’s already shown herself to be a proper Gr 1 performer – and a convincing one at that. With Anthony Delpech up, she’ll have plenty of support. This is her first attempt at a mile but everything points to her crying out for this trip.

Festival Of Fire has won four of her five starts and although she is yet to race at Gr 1 level, she’s done more than enough to mark her as a serious winning prospect here. Her last two victories have been in feature events, one of which was against older opposition in the Joburg Spring Challenge for fillies and mares. That sort of form is not be sneezed at, as many 3-year-olds battle against older horses in the early stages of the season. Moreover, it was franked handsomely when the second and third from that race, Demanding Lady and Louvre, fought out the finish of the Gr 2 Ipi Tombe Challenge last Saturday. Festival Of Fire duly followed up with a win against her own age group in the Starling Stakes and comes into the race without any discernible question marks hanging over her. She’s built up a great rapport with Derrick David and, crucially, has shown she has a definite will to win, having ground out her last two victories remorselessly when the pressure was on. She also looks set to relish the extra furlong here, given how strongly she has run on to win her last two starts and if it develops into a scrap in the final stages one wouldn’t want to bet against her.

The main threat comes from Vaughan Marshall’s All Is Secret, who has been seen out once this season, a winning appearance in the Choice Carriers Championship over 1400m, where she got going late to assert her supremacy. A beautiful specimen of a horse, she is also the best-performed runner in the race, having won twice at Gr 1 level as a juvenile. The fact that those victories came over 1200m and 1600m represents a particularly impressive achievement and she is entitled to be considered the best of her age and sex on show last season. However, her sole below-par effort came when unplaced behind Rumya in the Golden Slipper, in a race where she was undone by a horrible draw. The problem is that she has once again drawn wide here, which is a serious blow to her hopes of reversing the Slipper form. The presence of Anton Marcus in the irons will go a long way to offset that but, as classy as she undoubtedly is, it is going to take a mighty effort to beat her two main rivals, given the disparity in barrier positions. She is obviously on the short-list of possible winners but will need her share of luck in running from that gate.

It’s hard to look for a winner beyond the above trio and one suspects that one of them will have to fluff her lines to allow the rest of the field a look in for trifecta purposes.

One filly who does deserve a mention is Gary Alexander’s promising Blueridge Mountain, who hasn’t done much wrong so far with a win and two close seconds from as many starts, the second of which came behind Festival Of Fire in the Starling Stakes, a race where she battled on well after trying to make all the running. She’s got ability, then, and her pedigree suggests she will relish the step up to a mile but she has drawn one from the outside, leaving her with a severe test against the Big Three.

Looking at the rest, Hammie’s Hooker would have a chance if she could reproduce the form that saw her established as the undisputed champion of the juvenile fillies racing in Cape Town during the winter, but she has been battling her way back from a lung infection and hasn’t been able to show the same dominance this season. She showed a return to some sort of form when third last time out but is another one who is badly drawn, and will have to be back to her very best to challenge the more fancied runners here.

Butterfly Girl, Earths Orbit and Intimateconnection all ran well enough when filling the placings behind All Is Secret in the Choice Carriers but this field has more strength in depth and they have also fallen victim to the draw ballot, so it’s hard to see any of them reversing the form with the Marshall runner, especially as she will strip a lot fitter this time around. They look to be up against it here, as do the rest of the field.