The reigning Vodacom Durban July champion Legislate moved well in light work at Summerveld yesterday, but will probably need his Gr 2 Drill Hall Stakes outing, a race that his equally illustrious stablemate Futura will be avoiding.

Legislate put in some light work on the sand under Sean Cormack, who reported him to be “moving well.” He put in a good gallop on Monday, but was “blowing a bit” afterwards and this prompted trainer Justin Snaith to say, “I take it that he will need his first run and he is drawn in the bush anyway (9 out of 12 runners).”

Stable jockey Richard Fourie retains the ride and if Legislate is anywhere near his best he should fight out the Drill Hall with the only other Gr 1-winner involved, King Of Pain, who is also drawn wide in 10.

Snaith has decided to avoid the Drill Hall Stakes with the J&B Met and L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate winner Futura, having been thrilled with his recent Greyville grass gallop, and race fans will have to wait until the Gr 1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge at Greyville on June 6 before seeing him clash with Legislate for the first time this Champions Season. Snaith has already noticed that the thoroughly professional Futura is a dream to train and one of his positive characteristics is that he “saves himself” and doesn’t extend to the maximum in his workouts. The Dynasty colt put in some fluent work on his own on the top sand track at Summerveld yesterday under Cormack.

Snaith said that his two KRA Guineas contestants Heartland and Ultimate Dollar had both come on since their first KZN outings. They both crossed the line first in their respective Champions Season pipe openers, but Ultimate Dollar was demoted after an objection by the connections of St. Tropez.

Snaith said, “Heartland has gears and is the closest thing to the two big horses (Legislate and Futura) that we have. He is a serious horse.”

Ultimate Dollar has an impressive stride but appears to take a while to wind up. Snaith felt that the Gr 1 Daily News 2000 would give him a better chance of classic victory than the Guineas. However, Ultimate Dollar has drawn in five on Saturday compared to Heartland’s 14.

Snaith said that generally all of his Champions Season string had not had gallops in Cape Town before travelling to Durban so would likely need their first outings in KZN. He said that all seven of his runners from Scottsville on Sunday had pulled up well, including Dynamic, whom he felt was unlucky to have been beaten into second in the Listed Sledgehammer over 1750m by fellow July entry, the Dean Kannemeyer-trained Solar Star, as he had received a bump at a crucial stage.

Snaith said that he would be aiming a lot of his other July entries, including the like of Jet Explorer, at the Betting World 1900 on May 15.

Snaith made special mention of his promising New Zealand-bred colt French Revolution, an eyecatching grey whose lightly coloured mane would make him an instant housewive’s favourite. He said, “He has really come well and is thriving. The idea for him is the Gold Cup, but we want to try and do as little as we can before then as you need a sound horse for that race.”

by David Thiselton