July – Vote Your Top 4!

Vodacom Durban July Fantasy Races Next Weekend

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 (photo: supplied)

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.

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