Donovan Dillon has been pencilled in as the missing jockey blank on Golden Ducat in Saturday’s Vodacom Durban July. Dillon was officially declared by trainer Eric Sands this morning after much speculation.

Dillon, whose carded minimum riding weight is 56.5kg, will need to shed 3.5kg by Saturday to make the 53kg allotted the Cape Derby winner but was confident that he would make the required weight in time.

He weighed in at 55kg yesterday. “I’m on a strict diet and I have got a week,” he said on Tuesday. He has also consulted former jockey Garth Puller who famously shed 6kg to make 49kg when winning the July aboard Bush Telegraph in 1987.

By Andrew Harrison