The Vodacom Durban July whinging, debating and talking has reached delivery time. Eighteen of our best will line up at the 2200m marker at Greyville on Saturday for a bruising battle that will sort the men from the boys – and maybe the girl – as well as the talkers from the doers. It is a race where luck will count – but raw guts, heart and ability will always mean just that much more.
The race that has had us all speculating and calculating and dreaming for months is finally upon us.
The final field controversies, the conditions debate and the track saga are buried as we all focus on finding the winner.
Watch multiple July winning jockey Garth Puller recount some memories and give his views
Double Date
Dean Kannemeyer won the race in 2015 with Power King and he looks to make it a glorious double for his owners, Khaya Stables.
Solid Speed – our choice
A typically classy and trojan son of Dynasty, Solid Speed has all the hallmarks of a horse ripe to come out on top.
Dean Kannemeyer – looking for a double
Fit, well weighted, distance suited and well drawn with a big race jockey to guide him home, Solid Speed is our top-rated runner and he looks the part.
With two eye-catching prep runs/ wins, he will be ready to strike from a 5 draw and is a versatile sort who can adapt to the conditions – whatever the surface or pace may throw at him.
The only 5yo in the line-up is our choice to bring home the bacon.
But it won’t be a walk in the park and the Tarry topweight French Navy will make sure that Solid Speed will know he has been in a race.
French Navy – topweighted
Brought along slowly, the year younger French Navy is drawn right alongside Solid Speed and has also enjoyed a royal prep.
He was running on steadily at his most recent start when beaten 1,80 lengths in the Gold Challenge.
Top jock Anthony Delpech goes for July number five and picked the only filly in the race and the beautiful Bela-Bela could show the world how good she really is.
Bela-Bela will be ridden by Anthony Delpech
A tad uncomfortable close to some of the boys at the weights, she has a perfect draw and two outstanding feature prep wins to her credit. An exciting sort, she bids to become the first daughter of 2003 winner Dynasty to emulate her illustrious Dad.
Dougie Whye jets in from Hong Kong to ride her badly drawn stablemate Black Arthur.
The SA Guineas winner has an electrifying turn of foot and could defy the odds for his top sire, Silvano.
Its My Turn will be ridden by Richard Fourie
The Investec Cape Derby winner It’s My Turn catches the eye as a possible back-up pacemaker and is a top-class sort who stays well. He chased Rabada home in the Daily News and looks to have peaked at the right time.
His jockey Richard Fourie has been there, done it!
Gr1 Gold Challenge winner Mac De Lago has drawn in Toti and picked up a massive penalty for his boardroom win of that race.
Mac De Lago has drawn wide
The Australian bred son of Redoute’s Choice has run some of his best races at Greyville and if Mauritius bound Bernard Fayd’herbe can make a plan from the draw, he must go into the quartet calculations.
Mambo Mime is the second string in the Kannemeyer attack and races in silks that were to the fore in 2003 and 2006.
Kannemeyer support fire Mambo Mime
He ran on powerfully off a tardy gallop in the Daily News 2000 and the Byerley Turk winner inspires confidence as a value place bet proposition.
Triple Crown hero Abashiri gives the Van Vuurens a chance of realising their dream of a July winner but the son of Go Deputy has been given a massive task as a 3yo with 59kgs to lumber.
He does have a decent draw and a jockey who knows him well. But on a line through the SA Derby and Daily News cross collateral, he frankly looks in the deep end and while nobody is doubting his talent, he takes on the world here.
Mike Azzie’s second stringer Rabada has been withdrawn.
Joey Ramsden – jockey power
Joey Ramsden has pulled off a jockey coup with two of the country’s best riders doing duty for his team.
Anton Marcus rides Silvano gelding St Tropez from an off midfield draw. While held by Solid Speed on the Betting World 1900 second, we would have preferred to see him with another run under the belt – as this is an effective second run post his Sansui Summer Cup assault.
Piere Strydom rides The Conglomerate from the 20 draw. And Striker looks the right man, having achieved the well nigh ‘impossible’ in 2012 on Pomodoro.
The Conglomerate has fourths in the Betting World 1900 and the Cup Trial in his prep schedule, but that may not be winning credentials here.
Things went awry with Mike Bass’ very last July runner, Marinaresco, at the barrier draw pull. 19 is not a gate that the connections were hoping for.
Marinaresco is poorly drawn
He provides Grant Van Niekerk with his fourth July bid.
The Winter Guineas and Winter Classic hero is an unexposed sort and don’t be fooled by his ratings and the weights.
If not this year, Marinaresco may be an early selection for 2017!
Gavin Van Zyl’s Rocketball is held by Mambo Mime and It’s My Turn on his Daily News fourth – and is probably best noted for his cracking effort when almost shattering the Triple Crown dream at his penultimate start.
Rocketball chases Abashiri in the SA Derby
The son of Judpot’s biggest win was at MR 89 Handicap level – he is a welcome participant but a very unlikely player.
Master Sabina has done nothing in three runs since his sensational Sansui Summer Cup short head victory over stablemate Deo Juvente – a controversial no show in the final field.
It will be nice to welcome Gavin Lerena back from Hong Kong and while a former winner on the day, Master Sabina appears to lack the ticks in the right boxes – certainly at this point.
Andrew Fortune – rides Samurai Blade
Sean Tarry’s Samurai Blade is an interesting engagement for our flamboyant friend and legend of the saddle, Andrew Fortune.
The son of Where’s That Tiger is well held by Rabada on their Daily News 2000 clash but earned his 108 rating (that sounds high) on his two good placings in the SA Derby and SA Classic. Fortune has got to be the biggest asset here.
Justin Snaith’s Dynamic has drawn at pole position and is being spoken about in some quarters as a potential pacemaker.
Young Lyle Hewitson will have massive pressure on his shoulders to get out quickly. Solid Speed appears to hold him well at the weights.
Ten Gun Salute is the first of the Duncan Howells’ coupling and this smart son of Henrythenavigator ran decent races in the SA Guineas and the Daily News 2000.
He showed his class with three smart wins on the trot and while held by Solid Speed, could be a nice quartet dividend booster if he runs into the money.
His stable companion Saratoga Dancer is probably the luckiest horse to get into the race in what many will label a hometown call by the panel.
The son of Mambo In Seattle is massively under sufferance at the weights and his wide draw does nothing to enhance his chances of even running in the top half of the field.
Sean Tarry’s Trophy Wife was the most undeserving exclusion in years and deserves her break following the withdrawal of Rabada.
Trophy Wife is in
She was beaten only two lengths by Met winner Smart Call at Turffontein in November, was third behind the same horse in the 2015 Woolavington and confirmed her well-being with a smooth win in the Gr2 Gerald Rosenberg Stakes recently.
Second reserve Deputy Jud has not won since the 2015 Supreme Cup.
He did show up well when chasing Cape Speed home in the Track And Ball Derby a fortnight back, so will strip fit.
We are going with Solid Speed to hold Bela-Bela and a toss-up for the paces between Mambo Mime, French Navy and It’s My Turn.
Thanks to Andrew Bon for the You Tube insert
