Last year’s second Marinaresco looks like ending up with top weight if, as seems possible, Captain America sidesteps the Vodacom Durban July.

Marinaresco (Nkosi Hlophe)

Brett Crawford said: “Captain America works on grass this week and starts off in the (Independent On Saturday) Drill Hall and then goes for the Rising Sun Gold Challenge which will be one of his main missions. We will then make a call as to whether he runs in the July or waits for the Champions Cup.”

Since El Picha in 2000 only one horse has won South Africa’s most celebrated race with top weight – Pocket Power when he dead-heated with Dancer’s Daughter in 2008 – and that horse’s owner Marsh Shirtliff confirmed that Marinaresco will take his chance in the July 1 spectacular even if the gelding has to shoulder 60kg. So too did trainer Candice Bass-Robinson, saying: “It wouldn’t be ideal but we will run assuming things go right in the meantime.”

In last year’s July Marinaresco was beaten a quarter of a length by The Conglomerate. Both carried 55.5kg but now Marinaresco is rated 4kg better. Much of the difference is due to the weight-for-age scale but it underlines Joey Ramsden’s view that The Conglomerate is “still off a reasonable mark.”

By Michael Clower

The Mark Dixon-trained London Call was an impressive winner of a Pinnacle Stakes race over 1100m at Scottsville on Sunday under Marco van Rensburg and will by all accounts be a big runner in the Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Sprint over 1200m at the Festival Of Speed meeting on May 27 at Scottsville.

Another KZN Gr 1 hopeful for the Festival Of Speed might well be the filly Great Aim, who is trained out of the small yard of Ivan Moore, who has proved before he can get the best out of a good horse.

London Call (Nkosi Hlophe)

Van Rensburg was impressed with the big stride of London Call on Sunday and said he would be “hard to beat” if carrying the right weight in the Tsogo Sun. He was thankful for the advice he received from London Call’s regular pilot Brandon Lerena from Mauritius and hoped he would keep the ride. He reckoned there would be a lot of jockeys trying to get aboard the six-year-old Kahal gelding.

London Call has only had 13 career starts, winning eight of them. Dixon has learnt how to peak him for a race by using the Summerveld sand tracks, as he takes a long time to recover from his races and his issues mean he is unable to work on the grass. The connections were bitterly disappointed, if not angry, when London Call was eliminated from the Tsogo Sun field last year. However, he has made sure of his place this year as he is unbeaten in four starts from 1100m to 1400m this season and ran off a 108 merit rating on Sunday. In fact Dixon said he is only getting better, so missing last year’s race might have turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

On Sunday, he beat a good field by 1,75 lengths, despite carrying topweight of 61,5kg.

There were good Tsogo Sun trials for a number of other horses in the race. The Justin Snaith-trained Sergeant Hardy finished an excellent second considering he is only a three-year-old and carried joint topweight. Furthermore, he likely needed the run, his first since outing since his disappointing unplaced run on Sun Met day when starting at 15/10. When at his best Sergeant Hardy is capable of blitzing a field, but on this occasion he sat just off the pace but had to be pushed along from a long way out, so will likely come on a lot from the run.

Barbosa (Nkosi Hlophe)

Dennis Drier’s Gr 1 winners Guinness and Seventh Plain ran good trials in third and fourth, although they were both receiving 3kg from the winner. The former was returning from a long break, while the latter, who ran on in eye-catching style, was having his first outing since the Betting World Cape Flying Championship on Sun Met day.

Drier’s evergreen Barbosa was also not disgraced in seventh, considering he was carrying joint topweight and had a small traffic problem late on.  The Brett Crawford-trained Search Party ran a good sixth with joint topweight, considering he likely needed the run, his first since the Cape Flying.

There were also excellent big race trials from the Duncan Howells pair Saratoga Dancer and Ten Gun Salute. Both are entered in the Vodacom Durban July and they stayed on for fifth and eighth respectively.

Earlier on the powerfully built Drier-trained Var filly Vanity Fair led a Maiden Juvenile Plate over 1000m from pillar to post under Anthony Delpech to win easing up by 2,5 lengths. This franked the form of the Ivan Moore-trained Great Aim, who is by Main Aim. On debut over 1000m at Scottsville Great Aim showed fine cruising speed before quickening to win by 1,5 lengths, beating Vanity Fair by 1,75 lengths. The yard said she had “woken up” from that run and would now be aimed at the Strelitzia Stakes over 1100m at Scottsville on April 30. That race will tell whether the Allan Robertson is a realistic target. Moore won a juvenile Gr 1 with the Australian-bred Fighting Warrior in 2011 on one of the few occasions he was given the chance to train a top horse.

By David Thiselton

The build up to the 2017 Vodacom Durban July has begun and among the 58 entries, who will either be preparing for battle or fighting for a place in the field on July 1, are no fewer than 14 individual Gr 1 winners.

There is unlikely to be a repeat of last year’s weights anomaly, which saw all but five of the eventual 18 runners competing under sufferance.

The Joey Ramsden-trained The Conglomerate will thus have an outstanding chance of defending his crown. If the race was run tomorrow he would carry the same weight as last year, 55,5kg.

The nominations are  headed by the Brett Crawford-trained Sun Met third-placed Captain America, who has developed into a highly effective front runner. Captain America’s 116 merit rating is one higher than the Candice Bass-Robinson-trained Marinaresco’s. The latter finished a flying second last year before winning the Gr 1 Champions Cup over 1800m at Greyville.

National champion trainer Sean Tarry has the most entries, 16, and among them is last year’s topweight French Navy. This five-year-old is now merit rated 113 and can match it with the best when at his absolute peak. Tarry has nine three-year-olds among his entries and the best candidate could well be Al Sahem, an inexperienced Silvano colt who was runner up in both the Gr 2 Gauteng Guineas and Gr 1 SA Classic.

Bela-Bela with Anthony Delpech up (Nkosi Hlophe)

Justin Snaith’s nine entries include the dual Gr 1-winning champion filly Bela-Bela as well as last year’s July fourth-placed It’s My Turn and also the talented Black Arthur. His four-year-old Dynasty gelding Prince Of Wales has been especially laid out for this KZN campaign and is one who could emerge from the blue.

Bass-Robinson has two Gr 1-winning fillies among her four entries, Nightingale and Silver Mountain, and the former makes more appeal over this trip. Her expensively bought three-year-old Horizon could also develop into a July horse.

Brett Crawford’s three entries include the Gr 1 Investec Cape Derby winner Edict Of Nantes.

Mike de Kock has five entrants and it would be no surprise to see him win his fifth July with the progressive Gr 1 SA Classic winner, Heavenly Blue. His Gr 1 SA Fillies Classic winner Orchid Island could also make her presence felt.

Geoff Woodruff has a strong entry of five. They include the twice Gr 1 Gauteng Sansui Summer Cup winner Master Sabina and the promising three-year-old gelding Pagoda. His other three entries Deo Juvente, Master Switch and Bi Pot have all been Gr 1 placed.

Former KZN champion trainer Duncan Howells’ four entries include last year’s fifth-placed Saratoga Dancer as well as Ten Gun Salute, who is a dark horse as he has reportedly been a different horse since gelding.

There are only two other KZN horses, the talented Gareth van Zyl-trained Celtic Captain, and the Gavin van Zyl-trained Gr 1 SA Derby runner up Rocketball, who continues to disappoint considering his massive stride.

Johan Janse van Vuuren has entered Brazuca, who was an impressive winner of the Gr 2 Colorado King Stakes over 2000m at Turffontein last time out.

Stanley Ferreira has entered the classy Gr 1-winning filly Juxtapose, who won two legs of last season’s SA Triple Tiara.

Weiho Marwing has entered last year’s July third-placed Mac De Lago. However, this Gr 1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge winner has had a disappointing season.

The first supplementary stage is on May 9.

It was also announced on Thursday that Gold Circle have joined forces with Prosport International to stage a “festival of racing” on the last weekend of the SA Champions Season. This extravaganza will have nine races on the Saturday, including the Gr 1 Champions Cup, and ten races on the Sunday, including the e Lan Gold Cup.

David Thiselton

Catch the first entries for the 2017 Vodacom Durban July on Tellytrack DSTV 239 on Thursday, April 13, at 6.55pm.

The Grade 1 R4,25million Vodacom Durban July will be run over 2200m at Greyville racecourse on Saturday July 1.

For event and raceday information visit http://www.vodacomdurbanjuly.co.za OR http://www.championsseason.co.za

Popular Summerveld trainer Paul Lafferty celebrated being named Personality Of The Year at the KZN Racing Awards on Friday night with a fine double at Scottsville on Sunday.

Lafferty thoroughly deserved the award as he does a lot to promote the Sport Of Kings.

Not only is he trainer, but is also a director of Gold Circle, Chairman Of The KZN Trainer’s association, the South African ambassador for Australian sales company Magic Milllions, he co-hosts two Tellytrack shows,  Winning Ways and a new one about football, and he is also an on course racing presenter.

Lafferty has also had time in the past to be a highly entertaining Master Of Ceremonies at various racing functions. His witticisms on the latter occasions, as well as in everyday life, are the reason he was introduced on Friday night as, among other things, a comedian.

Lafferty has endured the probable toughest period of his life since being diagnosed with cancer over a year ago. He has coped admirably and has been on top of it to date due to his positive attitude as well as a tremendous show of support from the racing industry, which included raising funds for the medical treatment.

He said, “I was very surprised to receive the award, I had no idea it would be me, and I was truly humbled and honoured. It is a good award to win. I cannot state how grateful I am for the support I have received in the fight against cancer and it shows just what a wonderful industry we have. You are down all the time when fighting the disease and working through it, so it has been tough. But the industry were behind me from the jump and we didn’t allow it to get the better of me.”

Paul’s wife Jan is out from her home in England at present and this made Friday night a doubly special occasion for the Lafferty family.

Paul’s season was also memorable from a racing perspective as he made his debut as a trainer in Dubai.

On January 21 this year his crack Australian-bred colt Harry’s Son made that debut memorable by running second in the Gr 2 US$250,000 Al Fahidi Fort over 1400m on the turf, especially as his time was inside the previous Meydan course record. The prize money the colt earned covered the considerable costs of the arduous five month journey to Dubai. Harry’s Son followed with two fourth place finishes in a Gr 2 and a Gr 1, which qualified him for the prestigious Dubai World Cup night. Unfortunately, he jarred himself in the US$6 million Dubai Turf over 1800m and finished unplaced. He has been recovering in Spain since and the next big step in the roller coaster adventure for his passionate owners is his intended participation in the Gr 2 Prix de la Floret over seven furlongs on Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe day in France.

Yesterday Lafferty won the fourth race with the 14/1 shot Dress For Success, ridden by apprentice Diego De Gouveia, and the sixth with 6/1 chance Ole Gunnar, who was ridden by Keagan de Melo. The yard also had a second, a third, two fourths and a fifth from their total of twelve runners.

David Thiselton

The Sean Tarry-trained Avontuur Thoroughbred Farm Stud-bred Greys Inn gelding Legal Eagle won the most anticipated Equus Award, Horse Of The Year, at the glittering annual ceremony held at the Emperor’s Palace on Tuesday night.

The awards all had deserving winners, but at the same time there were a number of the usual hard luck stories.

The three horses who could be considered desperately unlucky were Smart Call, Abashiri and Mystic Spring, who in any other year would likely have had their names up in lights.

Lyndon Barends & Sean Tarry (GC Photos)

Legal Eagle received the Horse Of The Year award, as well as Champion Older Male and Champion Miler awards, due to his three Gr 1 victories. These included two weight for age Mile wins, in the L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate and the HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes, as well as a win in the Gr 1 R4 million Premier’s Champions Challenge over 2000m.

However, the Mauritzfontein Stud-owned and bred Ideal World filly Smart Call put up one of the best performances ever seen on the South African turf when annihilating the opposition in the Gr 1 J&B Met by 3,5 lengths. Among the vanquished were Legal Eagle, whom she faced on weight for age terms. Her Met win followed a comfortable two lengths victory over the champion filly Inara in the Gr 1 Maine Chance Farms Paddock Stakes over 1800m, a race in which another champion filly, Bela-Bela, finished third.

Smart Call was merit rated 121 after her J&B Met win, one point above Legal Eagle.

However, if anybody ever deserved to be on the right side of a contentious award it was Tarry, as he has had to swallow a few bitter pills in the past. Tarry received the Champion Trainer award for the second time in succession. He was the first to break the 200-winner barrier in a season, sending out 209 winners, and he also smashed the record for stakes earnings. He gave a thought provoking speech with one of his points quoting President Rooseveldt in which the message was to urge people of the racing fraternity to work hard in the arena rather than criticise from the side.

The Champion three-year-old male was another category which was difficult to call. The nominees included SA Triple Crown winner Abashiri and the horse who had captured the imagination of the South African racing public in the latter part of the season, Marinaresco. The panel sided with the Mauritzfontein Stud-bred Mike Bass-trained Silvano gelding Marinaresco. Marinaresco captured two legs of the Cape Winter series, before travelling to Durban and putting up an astonishing performance in the Vodacom Durban July, coming from 17 metres off the pace to run a close second. He later flew home to win the Gr 1 Mike and Carol Bass Champions Cup cosily, despite having had his initial run blocked. Bass, who officially retired after a glittering career at the end of last season, received a standing ovation when joining the connections on stage to receive the award.

The Champion Broodmare went to the Highlands Farms Stud-based Our Table Mountain, dam of Gr 1 winners during the season Silver Mountain and Cloth Of Cloud. She thoroughly deserved the award, but in any other year it could easily have gone to the amazing Cheveley Stud-based mare Mystic Spring, whose daughter Bela-Bela joined the like of Rabiya, Secret of Victoria, Spring Lilac, Rafiya  and Touch The Sky as stakes winners she has produced. Mystic Spring did receive a consolation Exceptional Broodmare award.

Smart Call’s consolation was to be named Equus Champion older female and Champion middle distance horse, while Abashiri received a Special Achievement award for landing the SA Triple Crown.

The Champion Two-year-old filly went to the unbeaten Sean Tarry-trained Highlands Farms Stud-bred Captain Al filly Cloth Of Cloud. Among her three wins was a victory against the boys in the Gr 1 SA Nursery.

The Champion two-year-old male looked clear cut and duly went to another horse by Captain Al, the Vaughan Marshall-trained Klawervlei Stud-bred colt Always In Charge, who won the hotly contested Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Gold Medallion over 1200m at Scottsville by three lengths.

The Champion three-year-old filly also looked clear cut and went to the Justin Snaith-trained Cheveley Stud-bred Dynasty filly Bela-Bela, who won the Gr 2 Daisy Fillies Guineas and the Gr 1 Woolavington 2000.

Andy O’Connor & Callan Murray (GC Photos)

The Champion Sprinter went to the Coenie de Beer-trained Scott Brothers-bred Overlord gelding Talktothestars, who was merit rated 120 after winning the Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Sprint. The award completed a fairytale for small string trainer De Beer, who also owns Talktothestars.

The Champion Stayer was hard to choose as Abashiri completed the Triple Crown when winning the Gr 1 SA Derby over 2450m, while Enaad won the country’s premier staying race, the eLan Property Group Gold Cup over 3200m, as well as the Gr 3 Gold Vase over 3000m. The Gold Cup winner is usually a shoe-in for the award and it once again swayed that way as the Mike de Kock-trained High Chaparral gelding Enaad, owned and bred by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum, was awarded the trophy.

Special achievement awards also went to Ormond Ferraris, who saddled his 2500^th winner during the season; the Glen Puller-trained CTS Million Dollar winner Illuminator (the award was accepted by owner Francis Carruthers and jockey Heavelon van der Hoven); the Mike Bass-trained filly Inara for winning three Gr 1s during the season all in different centres (Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban).

The Champion Stallion award went to the Drakenstein Stud-based sire Trippi.

Summerhill Stud won the Champion Breeders award for the tenth time, regaining it from Klawervlei who had won it for the last two years. Summerhill owner Mick Goss was there to receive the award and delivered a typically rousing speech. The dam of Legal Eagle, Young Sensation, was acknowledged with an Outstanding Broodmare award.

Lammerskraal Stud received an Outstanding Breeder award as breeders of Abashiri. The Print Media award went to doyen Charles Faull chiefly for his Thoroughpedia project.

The Champion Apprentice award was received by Callan Murray. The Champion Jockey award was received for the second time by S’Manga Khumalo.

Markus and Ingrid Jooste were once again champions owner. In the season they won nine Gr 1s, including the elusive Vodacom Durban July.

David Thiselton