David Thiselton

The Justin Snaith-trained Crown Towers has been supplemented for the Vodacom Durban July after winning the Grade 3 Hollywoodbets Dolphins Cup Trial over 1800m at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Saturday having earlier being scratched from the big race following his disappointing fourth place finish in the Grade 2 WSB 1900. 

The difference between the two races was that his chances of getting to the front in the WSB 1900 were scuppered by the horse drawn inside of him, Share Holder, whereas none of the horses inside of him on Saturday wanted the lead and he was able to get to the front fairly easily from a wide draw of seven out of eight.

He was thus able to bowl along in front using his stride the way he likes to and it also gave him the chance to fend off the challengers in the straight which he has been shown time and time again to be capable of.

In the 1900 he was caught one wide on the leaders quarters and tended to over-race, so it was not surprising he found little extra in the straight.

On Saturday he showed his usual good kick at the top of the straight to steal a length on Tristful, who had sat behind him in the running. Tristful then ran on to join him on his inside, while Nexus and Capoeira were challenging on his outside.

However, he dug down when Richard Fourie asked him the question and found enough to get up by a neck from Tristful with Nexus 0,40 lengths further back in third. 

Jay August, South Africa’s sectional timing guru, summed up the reason for Crown Towers’ ability to win from the front.

He said, “He can set both moderate and challenging although never overly fast fractions, and stay on the front end to the line. He had to go a bit faster in the Cup Trial than he has so far this year, but not overly fast, and he did so without much fuss.”
He added, “Runner-up Tristful is similar to Crown Towers with two exceptions. He rates just off pace rather than sets it and he more easily finds the runner-up berth than he does the winner box.”

In fact, Tristful has not won a race since October 2019 but has finished second six times since then.

Saturday’s sponsor now have Got The Greenlight at 5/2 outright favourite for the July, with Rainbow Bridge and Linebacker next best together at 9/2.