Anthony Delpech was asked shortly after landing the Canon and Daisy Guineas double at Greyville on Friday night which of the two Justin Snaith-trained winners he would prefer to partner for the Vodacom Durban July.
Black Arthur was the answer, the main reason being the horse’s stamina reserves. He waxed lyrical about the classy colt and could not quite believe how far out of his ground he had come from. Later, Snaith said the answer to the aforementioned question lay in the betting. Black Arthur’s July odds were slashed from 50/1 to 12/1 last week and following his Guineas win he is now 33/10 favourite with Betting World.
Bela-Bela (Nkosi Hlophe)
Delpech had earlier called Bela-Bela a “special” filly, but was not sure she would get the 2200m July trip, although he felt against her own gender she would “get away” with the 2000m of the Gr 1 Woolavington.
Both horses have come out of their respective races superbly, according to Snaith.
He confirmed Bela-Bela would be going for the Woolavington, which has always been her aim.
However, Black Arthur is a typically immature son of Silvano and Snaith said, “He is high quality and we want to still have a horse for next season, so must be careful which route we take with him.”
It was the first time both Delpech and Snaith had achieved the Guineas double at the same meeting. However, Delpech had been confident of doing it. He had told his family in the morning how badly he had wanted to add this accolade to his CV and felt this could be the year.
Snaith went close to the Guineas double two years ago. In The Fast Lane was beaten in the fillies race at odds of 15/10, before Legislate won the Guineas at odds of 11/2.
This year it was Legislate who let the side down, running no sort of race in the IOS Drill Hall Stakes over 1400m, despite starting at odds of 11/10.
Snaith said the former Equus Horse a Of The Year had been far too “quiet” in the parade ring for his liking and the yard were still monitoring him yesterday, but nothing obvious had yet been detected.
By David Thiselton
