Gold Circle will be looking into possibly reducing the width of the spur for next year’s Vodacom Durban July in order to encourage the runners to spread themselves out over the entire width of the track.

Graeme Hawkins, Gold Circle’s Racing and Marketing executive, felt that a 2m spur would probably serve the race best and discussions in this regard will shortly be taking place.

In this year’s July the horses appeared to be thrown outward by the 4m wide spur and did not make use of the inside section of the track.

There were consequently traffic problems towards the outside, although the shifting outward by the winner Power King did not help matters and appeared to be the cause of quite a few hard luck stories. Winning jockey Stuart Randolph consequently landed a two week suspension.

There is also an inquiry into third-placed jockey Johnny Geroudis’ weighing-in in excess of 1kg. On paper it appears that his mount Tellina, who finished 1,25 lengths back, would have won the July if carrying the correct weight and this is supported by the handicappers awarding him a four point merit rated raise from 108 to 112, while the winner Power King only went up three points from 106 to 109, while second-placed Punta Arenas went up two points from 109 to 111.

Meanwhile, the spur for the Gr 1 eLan Property Group Gold Cup over 3200m on Super Saturday, July 25, originally intended to be set at 6m, will also be subject of discussion by Gold Circle. It might be reduced in width, although the size of the field will have an influence on the decision. The final field for the Gold Cup is due to be announced at a function at 17h30 today (Tuesday) and the barrier positions will also be drawn. However, at the time of going to press only 20 horses were still standing their ground.

The spur for the Gr 1 Mercury Sprint over 1200m on Saturday is due to be set at a minimum of 3m.

By David Thiselton

Maine Chance Farms stud manager John Slade was a speaker at the Summerhill Winter Workshop held in at the stud farm’s renowned School Of Excellence this week, a few days after the farm achieved an international rarity by breeding the one-two-three of the country’s premier race, the Vodacom Durban July.

Furthermore, all of Power King, Punta Arenas and Tellina were by Maine Chance Farms’ champion stallion Silvano.

Slade has sometimes been driven to distraction by trainers who have pushed progeny of Silvano too early and by others who have given up on them too soon. He emphasised that they needed time and the dividends would then be reaped. All of Power King (four-year-old), Punta Arenas (six-year-old) and Tellina (four-year-old) have proved his point.

Slade admitted that delving deep into pedigrees to discover such elements as genetic siblings was usually above his head and he preferred a less scientific approach. He takes note of obvious nicks but a lot of his mating selections were simply based on it “feeling right”.

He is unmistakably a fine horseman and quickly learns which types of mares suit a particular stallion.

However, even a farm as professional as Maine Chance can make mistakes and their most famous one was when a particularly meticulous breeder sent two mares to be covered by Victory Moon and Silvano respctively. Slade knew well that on conformation the “scrawny” mare would suit Victory Moon and the “big” mare would suit Silvano. This coincided with the breeder’s reams of notes explaining why Victory Moon and Silvano would be perfect matches for her respective mares.

However, just after the first mating was completed, Slade suddenly realised that they had somehow got the mares mixed up. The mare was soon shown to be in foal, so the error could not be rectified. For some two years the breeder was unable to forgive Slade. However, the Silvano foal turned out to be Vodacom Durban July winner Heavy Metal.

Slade, like many breeders, has his own ideas on conformation. He is not too bothered by “offset knees”. He explained a trip to a game park will show that all impala have a knock knee look, meaning the knee can support the bodyweight from underneath. In his opinion an offset knee is often achieving the same thing. However, he regarded back legs in a straight line to be of importance. He concluded this section by saying, although perhaps slightly tongue in cheek, that due to all the power a horse with perfectly conformed hindquarters generated, the front legs would be going so fast they hardly touched the ground.

Slade regarded Maine Chance’s racing manager Justin Vermaak as a valuable asset to the farm as he was very much in touch with the modern world and was a dynamic type of a person and also more of a people’s person than himself.

Slade will soon be retiring and will be replaced by Tim Bootsma, who is currently stud manager at Highlands Farm Stud.

By David Thiselton

Picture: Silvano

Power King has recovered from his Vodacom Durban July exertions much quicker than expected and Dean Kannemeyer is now considering the Champions Cup even though he concedes that it is odds-against the horse running.

Kannemeyer, who won the 2002 race with Free My Heart, said yesterday: “I am keeping the door open on the Champions Cup. I will discuss it with the owner and Jehan Malherbe.

“There is a big question mark as we would be meeting horses like Futura and Legislate at level weights so it might not be fair on him. He ran his heart out in the July but he has taken his run very well and I am happy with him.”

Stuart Randolph felt the gelding wobble when he remounted for the victory canter-past and promptly dismounted.

Kannemeyer said: “Power King was exhausted – he had put so much effort into winning the race – and he did a similar thing after the Betting World 1900.

“We gave him water and hosed him down. Straight after the dope-testing we dripped him to put the fluids back in and the next morning he was jumping out of his skin.”

But, whether he runs on July 25 or not, Power King will not return to Cape Town until September. Kannemeyer stressed that he is a firm believer in keeping his horses in the warmth of Durban until spring arrives and even then some of the Summerveld horses will stay put to campaign in KZN and raid Johannesburg.

By Michael Clower

Picture: Power King (Nkosi Hlophe)