Please Note: South African Quartet Pools with fractional betting offered at Epsom (World Pool) and Lingfield (UK) – 6 June 2026.

Andrew Harrison

After a slow start to his riding career, apprentice Blaine Marx-Jacobson has burst onto the scene in recent months and currently heads the national Apprentice Championship. One of his early mentors was Louis Goosen and that combination came good with veteran galloper Donquerari in the B Stakes that headed the card on the poly at Hollywoodbets Greyville yesterday.

A touch unlucky at his previous start when checked at a crucial stage of the race, this win was a just reward for Donquerari as Marx-Jacobson rode a patient race. Content to take a hold in the early exchanges as Vanakkam and Pop Chart set a break-neck pace up front that saw both put up the white flag early in the straight. Marx-Jacobson slipped Donquerari up the inside of his field with Connery also in contention. It was left to the three apprentices in the race to fight out the finish with Jacey Botes, reunited with his favourite mount Connery, and Anaas Mosaheb chasing home for third aboard Kalahari Roller.

Hazel Green was sent out favourite for the second but after disputing the lead for much of the race with Magical Spring, both folded quickly as apprentice Dezahn Louw, who had sat in just off the pace on Wendy Whitehead’s filly, sent Dancing In Demark for home and she waltzed into the lead to win by and extended margin with the luckless Tipperary chasing home a well beaten second.

There was a desperate finish to the first leg of the Pick 6 with Nicholas Patel getting Last Ovation up in the shadow of the post for a dead-heat. Keagan de Melo made his move on Skipper O’Malley behind the Drill Hall to quicken up the pace and it looked to be a winning move as he pinched a lead in the straight. However, Gareth van Zyl’s filly gradually ate into the lead with Skipper O’Malley crying for the line and just managing to hang on to share the spoils, with Crimson Typhoon running on stoutly for the minor money.

Visiting Thoonsil won an excellent race in the Class 4 Handicap making all the running and holding off a strong challenge from Blizzard Boy in another tight finish.

Tristan Godden set a solid gallop aboard Mano Pandaram’s gelding and was in a race of his own until the last 200m as the field change places behind him every furlong or so. Serino Moodley made an early move on The Wolf but that came to nothing as Thoonsil kept galloping and it was Blizzard Boy that came out of the pack and looked to be going on by, but Thoonsil stuck to his guns as Blizzard Boy’s challenge faltered over the last 100m.

Apprentice Girish Dookhit took a leaf out of Tristan Godden’s book and made all the running on Alyson Wright’s seven-year-old Ultra Quick in the Class 5 Apprentice Handicap. Setting comfortable early fractions the gelding lasted just long enough to hold off challenges from Mountainsofthemoon and National Dream.

Godden employed the same tactics as he had earlier on Thoonsil, making all the running on outsider Little Cracker. Jumping from the widest draw, Godden had Tony Rivalland’s gelding out in a flash and was not for the catching. Challenges came from all sides but Little Cracker kept up a relentless gallop with Lunch Money and Paratrooper unable to get on terms.

Time In Paris looked set for a major upset in the last of the day as Anaas Mosaheb took Kom Naidoo’s mare to the lead, one she fought gamely to hold to. But it was in vain as Mxolisi Mbuto, hanging on to Marx-Jacobson’s tail in the Apprentice Championship, pulled one back as he got Lucinda Woodruff’s filly to respond gamely up the inside fence to eventually wear down the pacemaker with favourite Preacher Man a well-beaten third.

David Thiselton

The Daily News 2000 meeting always has an impact on the Hollywoodbets Durban July and the reaction of the handicappers and the bookmakers to the result of the Daily News 2000 and to the Woolavington 2000 is always one of the talking points.

Owner Jonathan Bloch has only ever had one Durban July runner before and it had an interesting name, Ess Five Beaches, which was the address of a residence owned by the late great owner-breeder Graham Beck. However, Bloch now part-owns all three of the horses who are currently at the top of the July boards with the sponsor,  Star Major, Note To Self and Wish List.

It is always interesting that the bookmakers seem to prefer winners to lightly weighted horses, because of course the handicappers job is to equalize the chances of horses in a race if they were to meet again. The handicappers used the fourth-placed Viva’s Liberte as the line horse for the Daily News 2000 and raised Star Major four points to 122 and raised Happy Verse nine points to 119.

However, the sponsor shortened Star Major to  7/2, with Note To Self and Wish List now 11/2, while Happy Verse is out at 8/1 together with See It Again and Regulation.

Punters might prefer to look for horses who benefit from the raise in weights of others.

Note To Self should be cherry ripe for the July and being by stamina influence Futura out of a mare by stamina influence Judpot augurs well for the step up in trip to 2200m. Note To Self didn’t have as immediate a turn of foot as Star Major or Happy Verse and another discussion point might be whether he would benefit from blinkers. This might help him gallop resolutely from a long way out and make it into a stamina test.

Happy Verse has always been a horse who has oozed class and he is now beginning to fulfil it. The Daily News 2000 was his third run after gelding and he at last showed the class he had always promised. He can progress further as he had a nice smooth race in the Daily News and that should have brought him on, so he should be a big runner in the July. He is by Vercingetorix, who won the Daily News 2000 and a Gr 1 in Dubai over the same trip, out of a mare by stamina influence Giant’s Causeway, so he should also enjoy the July trip.

Star Major will also be a big runner. His part-owner Ravi Naidoo has preached this horse from a long time ago and he has proved to be spot on.  The Querari colt has matured into a top class horse and can follow in the footsteps of the like of Big City Life and Legislate by winning the Guineas, the Daily News and the July, although the latter pair had also both won the Cape Derby before arriving in KZN. Big City Life carried a mere 51kg in the July in an era when topweight was 58kg, while Legislate carried a record weight for a winning three-year-old of 56kg in a race where topweight was 60kg, although he did win it via the boardroom with an upheld objection whose outcome drew plenty of criticism. Star Major will, as things stand, carry 56kg too, although the topweight this year will be 62kg.

A horse who has snuck into the July picture is the Gr1 SA Classic winner Grand Empire. He was in position 20 on the first July log, but after the scratching of both Okavango and Jan Van Goyen, he could come into the all important top 18. On the negative side for Grand Empire is, although he might end up with bottom weight, how good a preparation is he going to have had by the time of the July? His final run before the July comes on Sunday at Turffontein in a 1400m Pinnacle event, so he will not have enjoyed as good a build up into the big race as the like of Happy Verse have had.

Happy Verse was in the outside looking in horses on the first log, and will likely leapfrog Grand Empire, so the latter might still be under pressure for a place in the final field.

On the other hand, Hazy Dazy, who was in 14th place on the first log, might be in trouble after seemingly being outclassed in the Daily News by the males as she was beaten 11,40 lengths into 8th. She might be dropped from the log.

Wish List has the same 117 rating as Hazy Dazy, so will carry 53,5kg in the July as things stand. Her four wins on the trot include two Gr 1s and two Gr 2s. She will easily get the July trip being a daughter of Legislate out of a Silvano mare, Wind Chill, who won the SA Oaks. There are not many horses who would fetched the pacemaker the way she did on Saturday as she had to make up a lot of ground up off a slow pace. However, the question is how much the effort took out of her. It was likely not quite the race the connections had envisaged.

Meanwhile, the next big upheaval to the betting and log positions etc happens this Saturday in the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge race meeting, which not only features the Gold Challenge itself, but also the all important Gr 3 Betgames Cup Trial over 1800m, which is always a big July pointer race.

Regulation will be under big pressure to win the Cup Trial. He is an 8/1 shot for the July with the sponsor, despite having been in the outside looking in horses on the first log. He will likely need to win the race to definitely force his way in and on the downside he has drawn wide in barrier ten out of 11 for Saturday’s race. If he does win it there will be more pressure on the like of borderline horses like Grand Empire.

David Thiselton

 

Summerveld trainer Stuart Ferrie only has one runner on Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge day and that is his stable star Gladatorian who was a somewhat unlucky 0,35 length third in the Gold Challenge last year and comes into the race off an equally good preparation this year.

 

The six-year-old Vercingetorix gelding had a most disappointing campaign in Cape Town, but Stuart pointed out he just did not enjoy it over there and it had been the same when he went there as a three-year-old. On that occasion he had won his pipe opener over 1000m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth when well weighted in a Progress Plate, but had then finished ten lengths back for his main target, the Gr 2 Khaya Stables Diadem Stakes over 1200m.

 

Stuart surmised that when the tracks are different the horses have to lift their feet differently and it impacts on their race preparation.

 

The tracks at Milnerton are heavier than the ones at Summerveld.

 

Some horses actually enjoy being prepared in heavy conditions, with Gladatorian’s stable companion I Am Giant being an example.

 

Stuart likened Gladatorian’s dislike of the heavy conditions to a human being who believed he or she was fit before going for a run on the beach and finding out otherwise.

 

Gladatorian’s lack of his usual devastating turn of foot in his opening race at Holywoodbets Kenilworth, the Gr 2 Ridgemont Green Point Stakes over 1600m, was blamed on him being green around the turn in his first experience of a left-handed course, but nothing changed in his next two starts in the Gr 1 L’Ormarins King’s Plate and the Gr 1 WSB Cape Town Met.

 

He put in decent performances in all three races, finishing a 3,25 length eleventh, a 3,95 length seventh and a 4,85 length seventh respectively, but he never put himself in with a chance of winning like he normally did. He usually creeps up before delivering a devastating kick halfway down the straight, although the kick does admittedly often come too late.

 

Wind forward to the Gr 2 IOS Drill Hall Stakes on May 3 over 1400m at Hollywoodbets Greyville and he put in a much better performance and it should bring him back to his best.

 

He won last year’s Drill Hall, but his performance this year was almost as good because he was carrying a Gr 1 penalty as the winner of last year’s Gr 1 HKJC World Pool Champions Cup over 1800m at Hollywoodbets Greyville, where for once his kick did not come too late and was in fact perfectly timed.

 

In comparison to the Drill Hall winner Questioning, he beat him by 2,15 lengths in last year’s Drill Hall at level weights and this year lost to him by 1,60 lengths giving him 1,5kg.

 

Stuart said he would come on from the run and added he had been doing well.

 

Gladatorian enjoys coming from off the pace and from draw 8 out of 12 will have little choice but to adopt the same tactics as last year when Sean Veale dropped him out to the back of the field.

 

Last year he steadily made up the ground in the straight before giving his customary late kick at the 200m mark and was a fast finishing 0,35 length third to Dave The King and Oriental Charm.

 

He could give a repeat performance this year.

 

However, on the other hand he is now a six-year-old and without doubt faces a stronger field.

 

The Real Prince avoided the race last year in order to protect his Hollywoodbets Durban July weight and went on to win the Gr 1 L’Ormarins King’s Plate, which like the Gold Challenge is a weight for age mile. His presence alone makes it a stronger field this year as many viewed him as having a great chance last year if he was going to take part.

 

This year another Gr 1 wfa mile winner is also involved, Tin Pan Alley, who put in the performance of the season when winning the Gr 1 Wilgerbosdrift HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes by 3,75 lengths, beating six Gr 1 winners in the process, they being Fire Attack, See It Again, Main Defender, Cosmic Speed, Atticus Finch and The Real Prince.

 

Other horses Gladatorian faces this year that were not in the race last year are the like of Questioning, who is in the form of his life and finished a shorthead second in the King’s Plate to prove his effectiveness over a mile, the reigning Equus Horse Of The Year Eight On Eighteen and the versatile Gr 1 winner Fire Attack.

 

Legal Counsel is also capable, while Main Defender is top class on his day and Jet Force is no slouch.

 

They are another three who were not in last year’s race.

 

It will be an intriguing race as always and many KZN supporters will be behind the only KZN-trained runner in the field, Gladatorian.