David Thiselton

The weekend was a memorable one for big players both in South Africa and overseas, with Hollywood Racing having memorable experiences both at home and abroad, while two Race Coast Sales races at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Saturday went to deserved big players and a new ownership record was established on the same day in the Grand National at Aintree.

In the R6 million Race Coast Sales Big Cap over 1400m at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Saturday the winner was Roland Garros from the yard of champion trainer Justin Snaith and this horse runs in the Greg and Gina Bortz colours which were carried to Hollywoodbets Durban July glory by Oriental Charm two years ago. Greg and Gina need no introduction and own Roland Garros in partnership with JP Cuvelier.

Both Roland Garros and Oriental Charm are by Vercingetorix, a sire which Greg had famously targeted at the Sales before his stallion profile had reached the phenomenal heights of today. The strategy has brought him his two biggest pay days in racing.

Three-year-old Roland Garros was officially 2,5kg out with the best weighted runner, the filly Just Be Lekka, but he faced the four-year-old favourite Talk To The Master as well as the two other prominent three-year-olds Randolph Hearst and Malmesbury Missile on exact handicapping terms.

Roland Garros’ form on paper was virtually on a par with Malmesbury Missile, but he had the advantage of pole position, whilst the latter was draw wide in nine in the 12 horse field. Roland Garros was also entitled to have come on from his last start, a close runner up finish in the March Stakes over 1400m at Hollywoodbets Scottsville on March 1, as it provided a springboard into the Big Cap.

Roland Garros had been beaten 1,40 lengths by his stablemate Randolph Hearst in the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas, but his form points to him being better over shorter and in fact Roland Garros had beaten Randolph Hearst as a juvenile over 1500m, albeit by a shorthead.

In the Big Cap Talk To The Master had a good draw of two and Randolph Hearst had a fair draw of five.

As it happened JP van der Merwe used Roland Garros’s good gatespeed and early speed to find the perfect position on the rail behind Isivivane, who was sitting behind Just Be Lekka, who was setting a fair pace.

The 18/10 favourite Talk To The Master sat behind Roland Garros, but the latter was able to steal a march on him turning for home.

Talk To The Master came around What A Fortune, who turned for home alongside Roland Garros, but whilst Craig Zackey had to ride the favourite all the way down the straight, JP van der Merwe still had Roland Garros in the hands at the 200m mark and the writing was on the wall.

Roland Garros won by 1,0 lengths from Talk To The Master with What A Fortune staying on to be beaten just a head into third and next best were Isivivane and Randolph Hearst.

Malmesbury Missile had to come from last after being dropped out and was too far back, finishing a 4.05 length sixth.

The first prize was a cool R3 million, in comparison to the R2,94 million Oriental Charm had banked for his July win.

Greg Bortz purchased the Varsfontein Stud-bred Roland Garros for R1.3 million at the Race Coast Sales Cape Premier Yearling Sale.

There was a remarkable result in the R3 million Race Coast Sales Slipper as the first three past the post were all part-owned by the racing partnership of Laurence Wernars, Rikesh Sewgoolam and Mukund Gujadhur, while the Wernars was sole owner of the fourth-placed horse.

Sean Tarry was trainer of the victor, the Querari colt Turn It Up, who was the joint-most impressive winner of the day and looks to have an exciting future ahead of him. The half-brother to the Gr 1 Gold Medallion winner Proceed (Gimmethegreenlight) is also bred by Wernars and after being dropped out from a wide draw of ten in the 1200m contest he made up the ground effortlessly on the outside under Keagan de Melo and won easing up by 2,20 lengths.

The Vaughan Marshall-trained One World colt World Series was second followed by the Piet and Elbert Steyn-trained Gr 3 Ridgemont Cape Of Good Hope Nursery winner Red Spice (Erik The Red) and next best were the Louis Goosen-trained Erik Dubois (Erik The Red) and the Tarry-trained Secretary Bird (Rafeef).

Fitting in with those two Sales results was the win of the Marshall-trained Questioning in an A Stakes race, the other most impressive winner of the day. He is owned by the Bortz’s in partnership with Gujadhur and the Wernars Family and sounded a warning to other big older 1200m to a mile horses in the Champions Season.

On Friday at Fairview Hollywood Racing scored a double, including winning the day’s feature with the Dean Smith-trained Craig Zackey-ridden 117-rated sprinter Cruise Control. When the Cliffie Miller-trained Lancaster Bomber gelding Cheerful Charlie B won the last race of the day, Hollywood had reached 128 wins for the season, which equalled their own record for wins in a season that they had set last term.

When the Vengi Masawi-trained Qhude Manikiniki won the second at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Saturday, Hollywood Racing had set a new mark for themselves of 129 and they ended the weekend on 131 wins for the season.

Hollywood Racing and Riskesh Sewgoolam had also finished an unlucky second on Friday in a North American Gr 1 race with their crack Drakenstein Stud-bred One World colt One Stripe, confirming that he can compete with the world’s best in the Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland.

In the Grand National on Saturday legendary owner and punter JP McManus became the first owner in history to win the race four times when 2024 winner I Am Maximus regained the crown. Watched by a crowd of 59,962 I Am Maximus became the first horse since Red Rum to regain his Grand National crown. Trainer Willie Mullins had thus won the race for the third time in succession and he had made it a record-equalling fourth win for a trainer.

Please Note: South African Quartet Pools with fractional betting offered at Ffos Las and Musselburgh (UK) – 12 April 2026

• SPLITTHEEIGHTS: 109 to 116
• ONE EYE ON VEGAS: 106 to 115
• RADIO STAR: 95 to 107

• SCARLETT HEART (third): 91 to 108
• DAISY JONES (fourth): 106 to 108

David Thiselton

The Hollywoodbets Durban July conditions have been finalised and the final field panellists might be in for an interesting evening before the Final Field And Barrier Draw Ceremony, whilst the three-year-olds look to be on the back foot at present.

There will be a longer handicap this year with a 10kg spread in the weights from a topweight of 62kg down to a bottom weight of 52kg.

Furthermore, it will just be a straight handicap, unlike recent July conditions in which there was a maximum and minimum weight for certain age groups and genders.

If the final field happens to have a spread that is less than 10kg, the topweight will still be 62kg. If, for example, there is a weight spread of 7kg among the entries, then the bottom weight will be 55kg.

If the topweights are scratched after the setting of the weights, then the new topweight will be dragged up to 62kg. For example if the topweight after scratchings is 60,5kg, it will be dragged up to 62kg and after the rest of the field have been dragged up the bottom weight will become 53,5kg.

The final field will not necessarily be chosen by merit rating order.

Justin Vermaak, Executive Racing and Bloodstock of Race Coast, said, “There will be a final field selection panel like before and merit rating will be a leading aspect, but the panel will also take current form and distance suitability into account etc.”

In recent years the final field panellists have not had it too tough as the field was cut up before the final field announcement, with a lot of horses being scratched due to the recognition by the connections they do not have much chance, either due to the weights not favouring them or due to them being off form – the final declaration fee could have, in those cases, been considered a waste of money.

However, with the longer handicap, there are going to be more horses who still have form chances on paper.

Looking at last year’s July for example, third-placed Selukwe was rated 111 and had to carry 54kg due to the condition that the minimum weight for an older male was 54kg. He was thus 2kg under sufferance with the 127-rated topweights, both older horses, and he was 4kg under sufferance with the officially best weighted horse, the 129 rated (nett 125-rated) Eight On Eighteen, who was set to carry 57kg despite being the highest merit rated horse in the race due to a condition that three-year-old males could not carry more than 57kg.

In last year’s race Oriental Charm carried 60kg, Eight On Eighteen carried 57kg and Selukwe carried 54kg.

Under this year’s conditions the weights for those three horses would have been: Oriental Charm 62kg, Eight On Eighteen 61kg and Selukwe 54kg. Selukwe would have been 2kg and 4kg better off with Oriental Charm and Eight On Eighteen respectively under today’s conditions.

He would have been 2kg better off with the winner The Real Prince too and, on paper, would have been beaten 0,30 lengths instead of by 2,65 lengths.

There could theoretically have been a horse who would have been even more favoured by today’s conditions than the 111-rated Selukwe example.

Using last year’s race under today’s conditions, an older horse who had been rated 107 would sneak into the handicap under today’s conditions.

A 107-rated older horse last year would have had to carry 54kg, 6kg less than the topweight, but under today’s conditions it would have only had to carry 52kg, which would be 10kg less than the 62kg topweight.

Therefore, there are theoretically going be a lot more horses standing their ground at the time of the final field selection process this year, because a lot more of them will have chances of winning on paper than would have been the case under the old conditions.

Furthermore, with stakes of R10 million up for grabs there will be less cases of horses being scratched due to the  connections deeming them to be off form. They might still want to take their chances.

The difficulty for the panel will come in deciding whether a lower rated horse is deemed to have better recent form or better distance suitability than a higher rated horse.

For argument sakes let’s assume that we go back to last year and there are still many horses standing their ground until the bitter end. After the top 17 are selected, according to the last log and current form, let’s assume the next two horses are the 115-rated Madison Valley and the 120-rated The Real Prince.

The Real Prince is rated five points higher than Madison Valley, but he has never run a race beyond 1600m before.

Madison Valley on the other hand finished a close fourth in the Betway Summer Cup over 2000m and in his final run before the July he won the traditional July pointer, the Hollywoodbets Dolphins Cup Trial over 1800m.

Which one are they going to put in the all important 18th slot?

Such a scenario is going to have much more chance of happening this year.

Although it has been said that weight avoidance tactics are going to be used this year, those who do take that route are probably going to run a bigger risk of not qualifying than ever before.

Now on to the three-year-olds.

Eight On Eighteen was held in high regard last year and came into the race 2kg well-in, according to official merit ratings, and yet he was not able to win the race.

Under today’s conditions he would have had to carry 61kg, effectively 2kg more.

So it was tough last year for a top, top three-year-old who was favoured by the old conditions.

How tough will it be for good-but-not-great three-year-olds under the new conditions, considering there is no maximum weight for them and no minimum weight for older horses?

Likewise it will be tough for females.

Furthermore, this year’s three-year-old crop are arguably overrated off their current merit ratings.

For example, Gauteng Guineas runner up Grand Empire could not win the Wolf Power 1600 against older horses when 2kg under sufferance off a 102 merit rating (effectively a 106 merit rating), yet he is now rated 120. There will be cries of “but the handicapper is clueless” when looking at that, but those who do say that are clueless themselves, because the handicapper rates a race on that race, not on past races, and Tin Pan Alley had earned his 117 rating by beating older horses and Grand Empire had then beaten him. Furthermore, Grand Empire was likely not at his peak for the Wolf Power with the Triple crown series looming.

Nevertheless, the overall impression is the current three-year-old male crop is not shining and it is questionable whether any of them have properly earned a rating of 120 or above.

It could well be an older horse July, but on the other hand there is an impressive unexposed horse like Note To Self among the three-year-olds and more such types might emerge.

The build up to this year’s Hollywoodbets Durban July is going to be more intriguing than ever!

David Thiselton

The 2026 Hollywoodbets Durban July will be a milestone one with the prize money doubled to R10 million and with a longer handicap introduced as the topweight will be upped to 62kg and bottom weight lowered to 52kg.

It will fittingly fall on the 30th anniversary of the centenary July, which turned out to be one of the greatest of all Julys as it was won by the legendary Alec Laird-trained London News, who went on to put South African racing on the map by winning the QE II Cup in Hong Kong.

The renowned South African wildlife painter Henk Vos released his celebrated work, the Painting Of The Century, depicting a century of July winners, after the July’s centenary running.

The iconic painting now hangs in the Classic Room at Hollywoodbets Greyville.

Alec Laird actually ordered one of the prints of the painting before it was completed as the print had the first of his great Uncle Syd Garrett’s five July winners on the left and the greatest of his father’s record seven July winners, Sea Cottage, was in the centre.

The right hand side just had a blank with a silhouette of a horse, because Vos did not know yet which horse he was going to paint there.

Alec, who trained out of Randjesfontein on the Highveld, related, “He hadn’t made up his mind what horse he was going to put in the last panel (the 20th panel) and he even said to me ‘I would like you to win the July because I would like to put you as the last painting.’ With about a year to go I said to him I’m not going to make it.’”

However, fate then had it that London News not only became the 14/10 favourite for the 100th running of the July, but he was also saddle cloth number 20, being the only three-year-old in the field and the bottom weight.

Piere Strydom recalled, “I remember at the traditional Friday night cocktail Henk Vos was there with his big painting and there was one spot left for the 100th winner and I can still remember saying to someone that I think my picture’s going to be up there.”

London News duly won the race and Alec, London News and Piere Strydom are now at the forefront of the famous painting’s 20th panel and the horse is fittingly carrying the no. 20 saddle cloth.

The London News story starts at the National Yearling Sale of 1994.

Alec recalled big owners Laurie and Jean Jaffee’s chief aim at that Sale was to buy a yearling by their own 1987 July winner, Bush Telegraph.

Alec recalled Harmony Forever being his number one choice at that Sale.

However, he remembered London News being “a nice horse.”

He added, “On the first day a Bush Telegraph colt called Mr Newspaperman went for about R300,000. London News looked more athletic and Jean Jaffee actually said to me, ‘What about this one?’ On the first day they didn’t get a horse, the second day they didn’t get one and the more they asked me about London News the nicer he got, because I was otherwise going to go home without a horse!”

The Jaffees managed to secure London News.

Alec recalled, “He was a light youngster and even as a three-year-old was quite light. He didn’t show immediately, but we always had the feeling that he would be a nice horse when he matured.”

In fact, London News made a particularly inauspicious debut, beaten no fewer than 16,5 lengths under Anton Marcus in a 1200m Maiden Juvenile Plate over 1200m at the Vaal on June 6, 1995.

However, he got better and better and when he smashed the Greyville 2000m course record, which still stands today, in the Gr 1 Daily News 2000, he had won six out of eleven starts including the Dingaans and two middle distance Gr 1s.

Piere Strydom was aboard for the Daily News 2000 too.

He reflected on the 1996 July, the first of his four victories in South Africa’s greatest race, “London News was a lekker horse to ride because he had gate speed, a lot of natural speed and he would travel right up there in front and he had a good kick. But at the top of the straight (having led) I thought with a light weight let me just let the reins go a bit and get a length or two for the short straight. But he accelerated way quicker than I had expected and that’s when he made up three or four lengths on the field. Obviously it was going to tell at the end and he was stopping quite badly at the end. I heard the horses coming and I was just hoping for the line and he held on.”

Alec added, “Mike Rattray had invited me to watch in his box because it was on the line and he won by a neck but my eyes wouldn’t believe it because there was so much pressure. I wanted to see the number up!”

Alec described the emotion of being on the honour roll together with his late record-breaking seven-time July-winning father Syd.

In fact his extended family is comfortably the most prolific July-winning family in history with his grandfather Alec winning one as a jockey, his great Uncle Syd Garrett winning two as a jockey and three as a trainer, his father Syd winning a record seven as a trainer, and the cousins Dennis Drier, Alec Laird and Charles Laird each winning one July apiece – a total of 16 for the July dynasty.