The Vodacom Durban July selection panellists face an unenviable task today before the naming of the final field tomorrow as the Dean Kannemeyer-trained supplementary entry Mr Winsome threw a spanner in the works by winning the Gr 3 Track and Ball Derby over 2400m at Scottsville.

The four-year-old gelding is a typically improving son of Silvano and had impressed when finishing fastest of all for tie-third in the Betting World 1900.

Anthony Delpech (Liesl King)

Yesterday, he came from the back again, turning for home third last, and produced a resolute finish under regular pilot Anthony Delpech to wear down the underrated stayer Sun On Africa from the Gareth van Zyl yard and win by 0,5 lengths.

The excellent trainer of stayers Weiho Marwing claimed third place with Let It Rain, who was beaten 4,5 lengths.

Adding impact to Mr Winsome’s claim for a July place is that he will face It’s My Turn on the same weight terms as he did when dead-heating with him in The 1900.

Mr Winsome will provide another July runner for two of South African racing’s most deserving owners, Durban couple Roy and Gladys Meaker, who have been stalwarts of the sport for decades.

Earlier, the Gr 3 Track And Ball Oaks featured two July entries, Girl On The Run and Witchcraft. They ran good races to finish second and fourth respectively, but they would have had to do more to book a July place, considering the comfortable 1,75 length winner, the Geoff Woodruff-trained Zante, is merit rated only 92.

Bela-Bela was a July scratching last week, as she will be targeted at the Gr 1 Jonsson Workwear Garden Province Stakes.

Bela-Bela’s, Orchid Island’s and Captain America’s scratchings have made the panellists tasks easier, because if all the horses on the final log are included in the field then there is still one place left in the top 18.

However, there are three horses who were not on the log whose connections will believe they deserve places. They are Mr Winsome, Coral Fever, who was supplemented after winning the Gr 3 Jubilee Handicap, and Black Arthur, who is 10/1 in the July ante-post betting and his good preparation for the big race was completed by a third place finish in the Gr 3 Cup Trial carrying topweight.

Therefore some of the log incumbents might come under pressure and there will be a lot of jostling amid discussion done by the panellists, who once again will be the envy of nobody.

By David Thiselton