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Stablemates The Mouseketeer and Across The Ice, first and second in last week's August Stakes, are among the 31 entries for the R600,000 Emerald Cup on the Vaal sand on September 24.

The Mouseketeer was having his first race on sand last weekend when he won the 1200m event in good style from his Sean Tarry-trained stablemate , indicating that both will be big contenders for the G2 Emerald Cup, Africa's richest race on sand.

While The Mouseketeer was perfectly drawn from the rails barrier Across The Ice had to overcome No 10 draw and was running on strongly to get within a neck of the winner at the line.

Tarry also has a third entry with another sand specialist Incomodo.

The seven-year-old gelding showed a return to form when finishing second to Bouquet-Garni in a Pinnacle Stakes over the course and distance.

Iron Curtain won the Emerald Cup last year for trainer Robbie Sage, who will be happy with the way his charge ran in the August Stakes.

The Fort Wood gelding was having his second start after a lengthy layoff and finished strongly to run a seventh to The Mouseketeer.

Sage could have a strong hand in the race as all three of his entries are currently in top form.

Draw Bridge won at the Vaal last Saturday while Art Wish has won three of his five starts on the sand. All three are owned by the “Queen Mother” of South African racing, Bridget Oppenheimer.

“Mrs O” also owns three other entries – Bouquet-Garni and Wild Type from the Gavin van Zyl yard, and Queen's Bay, trained by Mike Azzie.

As expected Mike de Kock has a strong hand with five entries – Storm Crossing, who was favourite for last year's race but did not manage to overcome a poor draw, Boylan Blaze, Burmese Cat, Sky Marshal and lightly raced Empenoso Henn.

Empenoso Henn has only raced three times, winning his first two outings and then 3.25 lengths behind The Apache in the G1 Daily News 2000 over at Greyville.