Historic dead heat in the 2008 Gr1 Vodacom Durban July (photo: Gold Circle)
Bernard Fayd’herbe, our newly crowned dual Cape Winter Series winner, shared July honours in 2008, in the famous Pocket Power / Dancer’s Daughter dead heat. We asked him to share his memories of the day.
I had to ride Pocket Power (photo: Gold Circle)
“It was a bit of a story. I was obviously riding Dancer’s Daughter at the time and I’d won everything on her leading into the July. The same with Pocket Power. At the time, Mr Beck said to me, “Listen, you’re going to have to choose,” and I said I have to ride Pocket Power.
“No-one could control Dancer’s Daughter at work, I was the only one who could ride her, so I did all the work on her and Pocket Power going into the July. She was flying and I knew she was the horse to beat. I was riding for the Bass yard at the time, and Justin is obviously a good friend, but as the race turned out, we ended up dead heating which was a great result.”
“It was just an amazing day, really special. For a really good filly like that to get up to the death to hold off Pocket Power. Dancer’s Daughter was a really strong filly. She’s probably the closest to a colt I’ve ever ridden – she was really tough. She showed it in a race – she would never give in, she always gave everything and she never lost without a fight.”
Crossing the line, did he think he had it in the bag? “Geez, I wasn’t too sure. I wasn’t confident I’d won, but I didn’t think I got beat. It was really close and I wasn’t sure exactly what happened. It took quite a while for them to call the result, so we were both ringing around in front, waiting. When they gave the dead heat, everyone was very relieved and very happy at the same time. It was a good result for the Snaiths and for the Basses. And for Mr Shirtliff and myself too. It was my first July and the first July win for Justin.”
Why is the July the one everyone wants to win? “It’s such a hard race to win because of the conditions of the race. Now it’s even worse and since they changed the track configuration it’s very tricky.”
A great achievement, but now he has his sights set on winning it outright (photo: Gold Circle)
“I think because it’s got so much history, it’s such a prestigious race and such a hard race to win, it’s the one everyone wants to win. It’s one of the top 3 races – I like to think anyway. The Met, July and Queen’s Plate are the best three for me. I can’t take away from the other Gr1 races, but those are the most prestigious.” Teasing that he’s already achieved wins in all three and is merely collecting extras, he grins, “I’d like to win it outright.”
Missed the race? Relive it below:-
