Reigning national champion jockey Lyle Hewitson confirmed that the exciting prospect Carallumo would be his best ride on Vodacom Durban July day and he also spoke about the three-year-old question mark surrounding the July, where he rides Dingaans winner Shango. 

He rides Carallumo in the Grade 2 Zulu Kingdom Explorer Golden Slipper over 1400m from pole position and said, “Look, they are two-year-olds, anything can happen, but I do think she’s quality and she is my best on the card.”

He moved on to Shango and the three-year-old question mark and said, “We missed three months of racing and I think we will know a lot more after Gold Cup day, that will be the three months we’ve missed out. So, yes there is a question mark but I think there is a question mark every season, people have some doubts and the three-year-olds seem to raise their hands, so let’s see what they can do this year.”

He continued, “Mr Tarry has made no secret about Shango being quite a lazy workhorse so it’s hard to gain confidence from his work, but he looks a picture, he’s a magnificent individual. His coat is really good at the moment, he’s moving well, his demeanour is good, so it’s all heading in the right direction, so I’m happy where he is. He has been lazy at track throughout his career but everything else is spot on and I’m looking forward to the race.”

Hewitson rode Shango in the latter’s first four career starts and recalled, “He was close up on debut at the Vaal and in his second start at Scottsville, both over 1200m. He then won a really nice race over a mile at Hollywoodbets Scottsville and he backed up to run second to Alibi Guy over 1900m on Gold Cup day and I thought he was very unlucky that day as he was green and all over the place here at Hollywoodbets Greyville.”

He added, “I have done all the work on him since he’s been here (at Summerveld) and I know him very well.”

Tarry said recently that Shango had thrived in KZN last season and he expected the same to happen this term. The Captain Of All colt arrived at Summerveld shortly before finishing fastest of all in the Grade 1 Daily News 2000 under Gavin Lerena for a 3,05 length fourth and has been there ever since

Shango won the Dingaans last November in impressive style but the autumn classic season didn’t go according to plan, starting with him missing the Gauteng Guineas with a small setback.

Hewitson continued, “He wasn’t tuned up for the Classic, and I wouldn’t say he was disgraced, and he went into the Derby and looked a winner and just got run out of it.  His form is there when he’s right and he’s deceiving too, a lot of people would consider him a one pacer but he’s always a finisher so I’m happy and I’m ready for the big day.”

Hewitson spoke about two other runners on the day. 

He said, “I think Ecstatic Green will run a cheeky race against the boys (in the Grade 2 Durban Golden Horseshoe). It is tougher and she’s going 1400m for the first time, so a few question marks there, but I think she’s improved from her run and I expect her to hit the board.”

He rides In The Dance in the Grade 1 Jonsson Workwear Garden Province Stakes and said, “She ran a short head second to Oh Susanna last year in the Tibouchina coming from last after a slow start, so when she puts it together she’s a seriously decent individual. It looks a very tough race but if she hits the frame I will be happy. She’s doing well and her prep has been good, no excuses.”

Of the rest of his card he said, “My other rides are competitive and I’m just looking forward to some good runs.”

Those rides include SA Fillies Sprint third-placed Singforafa in the second, Shenanigans, who seems to love Hollywoodbets Greyville, in the Gold Vase, albeit from a wide draw, and the in form Golden Belle, who runs in the ninth if she does travel down after her win at the Vaal yesterday. 

By David Thiselton

South Africa’s chief handicapper Lennon Maharaj has looked at the Vodacom Durban July through the public eye this year and offered some pointers.

He firstly addressed the three-year-old issue and said, “There is little question that Covid-19 and the National Lockdown have impacted on the development of the three-year-olds’ Merit Ratings. Last season Soqrat ran second in the Grade 1 L’Ormarins Queens Plate at WFA terms behind Do It Again providing the Handicappers with a good yardstick. Hawwaam also quickly established himself as a dominant force. This season it was not until the Daily News 2000 victory of Got The Greenlight that the best middle distance horse of the crop was known. I have more questions than answers about the three-year-olds this season and the July will provide the answers. However, unlike handicappers who are post-race analysts, tipsters and punters have to analyse the race beforehand and try and predict a winner. One question they should be asking is how do the three-year-olds compare with recent three-year-old winners and how comparatively tough is their task? 

2012 winner Pomodoro (55kg) beat Grade 2 Smanjemanje (57kg) and Grade 2 winner Chesalon (58kg).

2014 winner Legislate (56 kg) (after a successful objection) beat Grade 1 winner Wylie Hall (57,5kg) and Grade 2 winner Tellina (58kg).

2018 winner Do It Again (54kg) beat Grade 3 winner Made To Conquer (53kg) and Grade 2 winner Elusive Silva (56,5kg). 

How do the older horses they beat stack up against Grade 1 WFA winners like Do It Again, Rainbow Bridge, Vardy and Soqrat?  The fact that we have been able to keep horses like those four on our shores has surely strengthened the quality of our national horse population over the last few seasons and consequently sets the three-year-olds a tough task, even if they do prove to be undervalued by the interrupted season. 

Maharaj then gave some pointers to punters, in layman’s terms, on how to unravel the handicap. He began by saying a successful handicap was one where there was the perception that every horse had an equal chance of winning, so the task punters should be setting themselves would be to find horses that have been undervalued by the handicapper and/or over-priced by the betting market. 

He continued, “Imagine a line graph based on the MR profile for each runner in the July.  You will find that all horses good enough to participate would have been and may still be on an upward MR curve but the more exposed among them might now have reached their peaks and have flattened curves. In theory if all the July runners are weighted to finish in a line, with the exception of the horses under sufferance who are still behind the line, then surely the smart money should be on the horses that are weighted to finish in the line but with room for improvement i.e. those who are still on an upwards trajectory or who are perhaps under handicapped.  

Belgarion should be outright favourite for the July. His official rating of 119 is only due to a specific condition of the WSB 1900, in which he achieved a 122 rating, so he is under handicapped. We could have weighted Belgarion off his achieved 122 rating as this is permitted by the conditions of the race, but we opted not to break precedent. Belgarion is clearly on an upward trajectory. He has a winning attitude and is in theory ahead of the Handicapper.  The fact is that we don’t know how good he is or whether he will cope with the rise in class in the July. However, he has a theoretical edge, especially if you believe that the other runners have reached their peaks. 

Maharaj then spoke about Rainbow Bridge, Do It Again and Vardy. “Statistics clearly show that the top weight band outperforms all other weight bands in ordinary handicaps where the weight spread is from 60kg to 52kg. The July weights favour the top weights more than that due to the 7 kg spread to the bottom weighted male (53kg) and 8 kg spread to the bottom weighted female.

Rainbow Bridge is in the form of his life and was ridden more positively when producing an eye catching second in the Sun Met, beating the rest of a high quality field including Hawwaam by more than 3,5 lengths and more.  There is absolutely no questions about his class and having implemented these positive tactics he may still be on the up. He will have to produce a 135 performance to win. 

Last year’s champion Do It Again has been beaten four times in a row by Rainbow Bridge this season but did produce a better effort in the Gold Challenge.  Is he back to his best?  A 134 or better performance is not impossible for this champion.

Vardy is a class horse with incredible acceleration. Will he be as effective over the 2200m and how will he cope if the race is run at a fast pace?  Can he produce a 135 performance over this trip?

Soqrat is a muscular, classy horse whose latest run was encouraging. At his best he is quite capable of a 134 performance. 

Twist of Fate’s rating has risen to 129. He has run close to Hawwaam on several occasions and would have received 3,5kg from Hawwaam had the latter participated.  Was he undone by the slow pace in the Gold Challenge? 

Bunker Hunt may have some stamina doubts but possesses great acceleration and has run with the best in the land.  What is your assessment of his Drill Hall win?

Tierra del Fuego also has form with Hawwaam and may still be on the up. 

The race doesn’t end there and we haven’t even touched on other factors such as pace.”

Maharaj concluded, “Hopefully there are some clues in this article to help you unravel one of the most debated July’s in recent years. 

And us Handicappers? We will have all the answers after the race!” 

By David Thiselton

Muzi Yeni showed on Sunday that any cobwebs brought on by his two enforced layoffs this season had been cleaned out as he rode a pearler on Running Brave in the KZN Breeders Mile and he goes into the Vodacom Durban July full of confidence having landed the ride on the highest rated three-year-old in the country, Got The Greenlight.

Two of Joey Soma’s handful of career Grade 1 winners have been ridden by Yeni, Happy Landing in the Champions Challenge in 2011 and Lobo’s Legend in the SA Classic in 2018.

Yeni added, “And that is with not too many rides for him.”

In normal circumstances there are enough points of comparison between the three-year-olds and older horses by this time of the year. However, there is little to go on this year as a result of lockdown, so it is difficult to know exactly how good Got The Greenlight is.

Some pundits are disparaging about the current three-year-old crop and according to the official merit ratings, Got The Greenlight is 3kg under sufferance. However, one point that perhaps sets him apart is that old adage “you can only win”. Furthermore, he showed in both the SA Classic and Daily News 2000 that he is one of those sorts who takes his foot off the pedal after hitting the front, so he could well be better than the official results are showing.

Yeni said, “I think he’s got a great turn of foot but he obviously has a short run in, so you have to time it right, you can’t go too soon on him. But the July is packed with horses and I’m sure he will have a lot of horses to run down or to chase. I’m just hoping from my draw (13) I can find a decent position from which I won’t be giving him too much to do. There is always going to be a debate about the three-year-olds versus the older horses but he has won three Group 1s, let’s take nothing away from him. He is definitely a massive runner. He’s got a nice weight receiving 7kg from Rainbow Bridge and Vardy and 6,5kg from Do It Again, so that should give us a bit of an edge being a three-year-old. It’s still a tough contest, but if I am able to get a good position I am sure we should fight out the finish.”

The question of pace can never be answered until the race itself, although with the like of Silvano’s Pride and Padre Pio in the field most pundits are expecting it to be good this year.

A good pace will aid Got The Greenlight in two ways: Firstly, it will give him a better chance of slotting in from his tricky draw as the field should then become strung out; Secondly, his run in the SA Derby over the tough Turffontein 2400m, when running out of steam in the final few metres, suggested that the Hollywoodbets Greyville 2200m should be well within his stamina capacity and a fast pace will maximise that asset.

Yeni concluded, “I’m going in with confidence and hopefully I will get a bit of luck in running as well.” 

Yeni’s best finishes in the July have been third, fourth, fifth and sixth respectively and he revealed he had been unlucky on one or two occasions too. 

By David Thiselton

It is the silly season in which Vodacom Durban July rumours abound and one of them this year had it that It’s My Turn was on the cusp of being scratched.

Trainer Dean Kannemeyer scotched the rumour on Sunday, saying it was nonsense, and reminiscing said, “I remember in 2003 a well known media man phoning me and saying ‘What happened?!’ I replied ‘What do you mean?’ and he said ‘Dynasty is scratched!’ I replied, ‘Well he seemed to be fine when I saw him five minutes ago.”’

It’s My Turn finished second in the Grade 3 Track And Ball Derby on July 11 and Kannemeyer said, “He took the run exceptionally well and pulled up sound. I was very pleased with the run, his second run back after almost two years off. I have just been cantering him this week and on Monday I will probably work him with something on the beach sand so he can just enjoy himself because he’s a fit horse. I’ve allowed the racing to get him to where I want him to be. All is good for the July. It’s a tough race but it’s like any other race, it’s tough, but he’s doing well.”

The now seven-year-old Dynasty gelding finished fourth in the July as a three-year-old and eighth the following year. 

Kannemeyer said, “It is remarkable he has come back after what he has been through. Originally he had issues and came to me and was rested and I then brought him back and he became the champion stayer of the country. But then I took him back to Cape Town and he strained a tendon so I rested him again and he’s come back and is in the July.”  

The yard have three other runners on the day including Delta Queen in the Grade 2 Zulu Kingdom Explorer Golden Slipper over 1400m.  

Kannemeyer said, “Her performances have been good since she’s been in KZN but I think she is still running just below her very best. I think she is better than her last two runs in which she jumped a little awkwardly both times. Var puts a lot of speed into her but she is bred to go ground on her female side, her mother went over 2000m, but the race will tell whether she stays. She’s doing well and if she runs to her true ability, i.e. that which she shows at home, and she stays 1400m then she should be competitive.”

African Warrior runs in the Non-Black Type Compendium Insurance Brokers eThekwini Sprint over 1200m and Kannemeyer said, “As a three-year-old he ran one fair race in his comeback in the Matchem Stakes. He’s doing well and he looks well but the kick he had as a two-year-old hasn’t really been there, so I’m hoping he bounces back to himself.” 

The yard run Liberty Hall in the Listed Hollywoodbets Thukela Handicap over 1600m and he said, “He is a one-time winner, he is probably the worst handicapped horse in the country. As a two-year-old he ran second to horses who are running in the July so I’m hoping he puts his best foot forward but if you look at that rating (101) as a one-time winner its tough, sometimes if you expose a horse too early they punish you.” 

By David Thiselton

Vodacom Durban July third favourite Vardy was soundly beaten by his stable companion Twist Of Fate in their official Vodacom Durban July gallop on the Summerveld bottom grass track last Thursday but this was of no concern to trainer Adam Marcus.

He said, “Twist Of Fate is a very good work horse, at home there are very few horses who can beat him when paired up, and Vardy, you put him with a weak maiden and he will come out second best, so he just does what he needs to do, he saves it all for the racecourse.”

Twist Of Fate is no slouch on the racecourse too and finished third in last year’s July.

Marcus continued, “Twist Of Fate I thought put up an exceptional gallop and has come through it exceptionally well. I thought he strode out well and just the manner and the way he did the gallop I was very impressed.”

“Vardy always gallops in a laid back manner, so I was very chuffed with him, he strode out well, he’s also come through his gallop very well, so very pleased.”

“We’re going into the final week confident that their level of well-being is where we want it to be and they are looking great.” 

There looks likely to be a good pace this year and Marcus elaborated, “We always hope they are true run races. Silvano’s pride is in the race and Padre Pio also has a lot of natural speed so hopefully it’s a true run race. I hope it is not a case of just a lot of early speed to get their positions and then everyone starts putting the brakes on and easing back. If they maintain the pace throughout the race then it’s going to be a true run race and the best horse should win.”

It was put to Marcus that Vardy, who has plenty of speed and who has never raced this far before, might not want a fast pace.

He replied, “I am always of the opinion we don’t need a fast pace for Vardy but we don’t want a crawl either. He got caught out in the Grade 1 last time (Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge) where the race was actually given to Rainbow Bridge, who just dictated at his own pace and sprinted for home. So, we don’t want them to be going flat out because then it is a very testing 2200m, but if they can go a fair pace throughout that will give them every chance.”

Twist of Fate wore blinkers for the first time in his career in last year’s July and will where them on Saturday for the first time since joining the Marcus yard.

Adam said, “He’s is going to go positive. We’re fitting the blinkers on him, so I want him to be up there, obviously not to lead but just behind that early speed. He’s still a colt and he’s starting to think a little bit in his work and I just think the quarter cup blinkers should benefit him.”

The blinkers help such a horse stay focused.

The Vodacom Durban July is the one missing piece in the jigsaw for Adam and his immediate family, although the extended family have five victories, all through his record-breaking uncle Anton.

Adam elaborated, “It is the one race that has eluded my Dad, although he obviously spent the majority of his riding years overseas, so there is a space in the trophy cabinet for it.” 

By David Thiselton