In a first of its kind in South Africa, two fantasy races will be run next weekend, the first on Friday 3 July and the big one on Saturday 4 July, the date that the original Vodacom Durban July would have been run.
The brainchild of new YouTube racing channel Clocking The Gallop’s Neil Andrews and Nico Kritsiotis, the race is expected to attract a lot of interest along the length and breadth of South Africa and indeed amongst all the expatriates around the world including countries like Laos and Australia.
The main Vodacom Durban July All Time Greats race will be run at 20h00 on Saturday 4 July and the Consolation All Time Greats will jump at 20h00 the day before on Friday 3 July.
Both races will be called by commentator Craig “Eagle Eye” Peters who has called 34 Durban July’s in his career.
Mike Wanklin
A handicapping team led by internationally renowned Chief Handicapper Mike Wanklin and assisted by locally based racing aficionados Matthew Lipps, Jehan Malherbe and Charles Faull were mandated with the task of coming up with the final fields of 20 runners each and allotting the weights to be carried.
The main criteria were as follows :
The Vodacom Durban July All Time Greats race – the entrant had to have WON one of the previous runnings of the Vodacom Durban July.
The Vodacom Durban July All Time Greats Consolation Race – the entrant had to have participated in a Vodacom Durban July but never won it.
Ipi Tombe – 2002 Vodacom Durban July
Mike Wanklin explained the process in issuing the final fields and how the weights are structured :
The Vodacom Durban July All Time Greats Consolation Fantasy Race
The weights allocated in this event are based on each horse’s BEST performance “at the weights” in the races they ran.
Thereafter, the allocated weight is tabulated against the backdrop of the current weight scale of the Vodacom July.
| VODACOM JULY FANTASY CONSOLATION | |||||
| Saddle Cloth | Horse | Age | Jockey | Kg | Draw |
| 1 | Elevation | 4c | Roy Curling | 60 | 10 |
| 2 | Foveros | 6h | Basil Marcus | 60 | 12 |
| 3 | Furious | 6g | Robbie Sham | 60 | 5 |
| 4 | Futura | 4c | Glenn Hatt | 60 | 7 |
| 5 | Jerez | 5h | Stanley Amos | 60 | 4 |
| 6 | Jungle Warrior | 5h | Kevin Shea | 60 | 13 |
| 7 | Model Man | 4c | Paddy Wynne | 60 | 11 |
| 8 | National Emblem | 4c | Rhys van Wyk | 60 | 17 |
| 9 | Spanish Pool | 6h | Jeff Lloyd | 60 | 2 |
| 10 | Surfing Home | 6g | Mark Sutherland | 60 | 14 |
| 11 | William Penn | 6h | Johnny Cawcutt | 60 | 6 |
| 12 | Empress Club | 4f | Anton Marcus | 59 | 16 |
| 13 | Olympic Duel | 5m | Felix Coetzee | 59 | 8 |
| 14 | Free My Heart | 4g | Andrew Fortune | 58 | 15 |
| 15 | Pas De Quoi | 7h | Garth Puller | 58 | 1 |
| 16 | Wylie Hall | 4c | MJ Byleveld | 57,5 | 3 |
| 17 | Lenin | 3c | Harry Berry | 57 | 19 |
| 18 | King’s Pact | 3f | Charlie Barends | 56 | 18 |
| 19 | Gatecrasher | 3c | Muis Roberts | 53 | 20 |
| 20 | Home Guard | 3c | Gerald Turner | 53 | 9 |
An Example will be Model Man:- he carried top weight of 57kg in the July when he ran second to Bush Telegraph so here he again carries joint top weight of 60 kg. All the horses on 60kg carried top weight in the July when they achieved their best meritorious performance.
Note that in terms of the current weight scale male horses aged for years and older can only carry a maximum of 60kg and females 59kg. Thus Empress Club and Olympic Duel carry 59kg.
Three-year-old males are capped at 57kg and fillies 56kg. No male can carry less than 53kg and female 52kg.
The Vodacom Durban July All Time Greats Fantasy Race
For this handicap the same parameters on weight restrictions as outlined above have been applied.
However, the weights allocated have been based on the overall merit assessment figures used by the FORM ORGANISATION and applied to each horses WINNING performance.
This is important because it is not necessarily a measure of that horse’s career merit. For example, FLAMING ROCK carried 52.5kg when he won and has been assessed off that winning performance NOT his subsequent showings where he actually achieved higher weight merit when being beaten.
It is therefore significant that the age of each horse be taken into consideration when assessing the prospects of the chances in this event.
| VODACOM FANTASY JULY | |||||
| Saddle Cloth | Horse | Age | Jockey | Kg | Draw |
| 1 | Sea Cottage | 4c | Robbie Sivewright | 60 | 11 |
| 2 | Politician | 4c | Bertie Hayden | 58,5 | 20 |
| 3 | Milesia Pride | 4c | Tiger Wright | 58 | 4 |
| 4 | El Picha | 5g | Anton Marcus | 57,5 | 19 |
| 5 | Pamphlet | 6h | Syd Garrett | 57,5 | 8 |
| 6 | Campanajo | 6h | George Skirving | 55,5 | 3 |
| 7 | Spey Bridge | 5c | Cyril Buckham | 54,5 | 12 |
| 8 | Pocket Power | 5g | Bernard Fayd’herbe | 54 | 18 |
| 9 | Dynasty | 3c | Robbie Fradd | 53,5 | 13 |
| 10 | Bush Telegraph | 3c | Garth Puller | 53 | 17 |
| 11 | Colorado King | 3c | Marty Schoeman | 53 | 1 |
| 12 | Flaming Rock | 4c | Karl Neisius | 53 | 2 |
| 13 | Ilustrador | 3g | Felix Coetzee | 53 | 16 |
| 14 | In Full Flight | 3c | Raymond Rhodes | 53 | 10 |
| 15 | London News | 3c | Piere Strydom | 53 | 9 |
| 16 | Mowgli | 4c | Basil Lewis | 53 | 7 |
| 17 | Royal Chalice | 3c | Mark Sutherland | 53 | 15 |
| 18 | Yataghan | 3c | Muis Roberts | 53 | 6 |
| 19 | Igugu | 3f | Anthony Delpech | 52 | 5 |
| 20 | Ipi Tombe | 3f | Kevin Shea | 52 | 14 |
Neil and Nico urged everyone remotely interested in horse racing to air their voices and to come forward and vote for who they believe to be South Africa’s greatest ever Vodacom Durban July winner.
The racing public can vote for their 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th in each race by sending their selections in to [email protected] or tweeting it to @ClockGallop.
- The deadline is Wednesday 1 July at midnight.
