Supplementary entry for the Vodacom Durban July, Mr Winsome, duly landed the odds in the Gr3 Track & Ball Derby at Scottsville yesterday but made heavy weather of beating Sun On Africa. The two drew well clear of the opposition over the final two furlongs but it was only inside the last 100m that Mr Winsome finally managed to get the better of Sun On Africa who had clearly had enough at the line.

Sun On Africa (Nkosi Hlophe)

The two met at level weights, the runner-up some 7.5kg inferior in the merit ratings, so Mr Winsome’s participation in the July is still very much up in the air. The selection panel tasked to choose the July runners will deliberate tomorrow with the final field to be announced at a function at Greyville on Tuesday.

Earlier July hopefuls Witchcraft and Girl On The Run saw their July tickets up in smoke with the latter only managing fourth and Girl On The Run second in the Gr3 Track & Ball Oaks. The race developed into a dog-fight over the final furlong with the race eventually falling to the Geoff Woodruff-trained Zante who managed to pull clear late under Ian Sturgeon. Zante last season landed the Listed Queen Palm Handicap for Neil Bruss who now plies his trade in the Middle East.

Girl On The Run was game in second but is unlikely to be considered by the July selection panel, the same going for Witchcraft who did well considering that this was only her second run back from a lengthy break, but not well enough.

Joey Ramsden (Nkosi Hlophe)

Joey Ramsden and Anton Marcus landed a double for Mayfair Speculators with their two smart colts Ancestry and Table Bay.

Ancestry is a smart looking son of Oratorio and, although only shedding his maiden, the half-brother to Gr2 winning filly A Womens Way, romped home with plenty of daylight between him and second-placed Texas Sky.

Table Bay made the expected improvement from his pipe-opener in the Gr1 Tsogo Sun Sprint, to run out a comfortable winner of the Track & Ball Pinnacle Stakes from the Brett Crawford runner Winter Prince.

In France on Saturday, apprentice, Mpumelelo ‘Pumie’ Mjoka, won the Longines Future Racing Stars on the prestigious Prix de Diane card at Chantilly.

The Prix Longines Future Racing Stars is designed to showcase the best up and coming young riding talent from across the world and selects hand-picked participants from the world’s top racing schools. The event is open to riders under the age of 25 who have won between 3 and 35 races.

Mjoka won the mile Handicap on the Chantilly polytrack aboard Beaupreau.

Mjoka follows on the success of fellow SA Jockey Academy graduate Franklin Maleking who won the Longines Future Racing Stars in 2013.

By Andrew Harrison

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

Edict Of Nantes will be kept ticking over until the July gallops in nine days’ time says Brett Crawford.

He said: “Edict Of Nantes is also doing well. He is racing fit so all we have to do now is look after him and keep him happy.”

One Crawford stable star who won’t be in action on July day is Woolavington winner Lady Of The House. “She has done her job and she is going for a rest in the paddock,” said her trainer. “In my opinion she is still a couple of months immature so a break will do her good.”

Edict Of Nantes (Liesl King)

Crawford, 45, has had a memorable season and victory in the big one on July 1 would not only fill one of the few gaps in his CV but finally make amends for the 2002 head defeat of Angus in his first season as a trainer.

“That was hard to take because I thought we had won,” he was to recall. “I never even saw Ipi Tombe who came with such a dash that she got up on the line.  People kept saying to me that it was some achievement in my first season but in this game nobody ever remembers who came second!”

Piere Strydom, who rode Angus that day, has been confirmed by Snaith Racing for last year’s Cape Derby winner It’s My Turn. He won last season’s July on The Conglomerate and will be bidding for his fifth success in the historic race.

Grant van Niekerk, beaten a short head on Smanjemanje on his first July ride in 2012 and a close second on Marinaresco 12 months ago, rides Black Arthur while Richard Fourie has been confirmed for Cup Trial winner Elusive Silva. Fourie won the 2014 race for the stable on Legislate.

By Michael Clower

Marinaresco, one of the early favourites to win the Vodacom Durban July, ran an indifferent race behind Captain America in the Gr1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge at Greyville on Saturday but trainer Candice Robinson confirms that he has pulled up well.

Marinaresco (Liesl King)

She said on Sunday morning: “He was fine after the race. I think he just raced too handily. We were trying to get him closer to the pace and they went hard on Saturday so he was always travelling out of his comfort zone. His biggest asset is his turn of foot, but he couldn’t find it because they were travelling so hard. Ideally we would have done better coming off the back. We’ll go back to dropping him in.
“That said nobody could have beaten Captain America!”

Robinson was thrilled with Nightingale’s second to Just Sensual in the Grade 2 Tibouchina Stakes over 1400m: “She ran a cracking race, running wide all the way, so she was unlucky, really.”
She added: “We haven’t really made decisions yet but I’m leaning towards running her in the July. She’s a big filly so she should hold her own quite easily in the rough-and-tumble of the July and she’ll be lightly weighted.”

Robinson also saddled Silver Mountain, but the 61-10 shot finished last. “I don’t know what happened,” she said. “She was travelling quite nicely but before the turn dropped the bit completely and never picked it up. Maybe she got a clod in her eye?

“I think she’s going to retire now. She’s never really grown, she’s the same size as she was as a three-year-old, and the other fillies have matured past her.”

TABNews

The last piece of the Vodacom Durban July pre-race puzzle was played out at Turffontein yesterday in the Gr 3 Jubilee Handicap over 1800m.

The two July entrants in the field, Liege and The Elmo Effect, both failed to make the frame as the second favourite, the Robbie Sage-trained Coral Fever finished like an express train from off the pace to win cosily under Muzi Yeni.

Liege (Nkosi Hlophe)

Liege and The Elmo Effect might have battled on the current unforgiving ground at Turffontein and their respective connections would have been disappointed.

However, the final field panellists might have breathed a sigh of relief as they already faced an unenviable task.

Coral Fever, a lightly raced four-year-old, started at 5/1 and provided another accolade for his underrated sire Judpot. He was bred by Ascot Stud and has now won four of 12 starts. The 25/1 shot Bankable Teddy bounced back to form by running second and 12/1 hot Hidden Agenda was next best.

In other news, reigning champion trainer Sean Tarry passed the R30 million mark in stakes earning this season at Scottsville last week Wednesday where he scored a double.

He has already smashed his record stakes earnings of R27,999,562, set last season.

The only question left now in the trainer’s championships is whether Tarry can earn double the amount of the runner up.

At present Tarry is on earnings of R30,102,750 and second-placed Justin Snaith is on R16,786,375.

By David Thiselton