Double Whammy has been added to Glen Kotzen’s Durban raiding party after making a 1 500k round trip to return to black-type winning form in the Pendant Stakes at Fairview last Friday.

Kotzen said: “She needed to wake up – after she chipped a fetlock in January last year she went to a farm and she thought ‘This is the life.’ But I liked the way she won at Fairview and it will have brought her confidence back. She will probably have one more run in Cape Town and then I will take her to Natal.”

Double Whammy (Liesl King)

Last season’s Cape Fillies Guineas third beat stable companion Night In Tahiti by half a length but the Woodhill trainer said the three-year-old will be staying at home – “The tracks in Durban are far too fast for her.”

Andre Nel is to try again in top company with Lohnromance even though the dual winner beat only one home when upped to Graded company for the Vasco Prix Du Cap.

He said: “Lohnromance needed the run that day more than we thought. She will run in a progression of races in Durban- the Poinsettia at Scottsville (May 1), the Tibouchina at Greyville (June 11) and possibly the Garden Province – although she probably needs to win one of the other two to push her up the ratings.”

Devin Ashby, surprisingly agile on crutches, reckons it will be another two months before he can dispense with the surgical boot on his right foot and that he will be out of action for seven months in all.

He said: “That’s a long time but I shattered my shin and I also shattered the ankle I damaged in the previous fall.”

The injury happened when he was unseated from Olimpic Airways going to the start at Kenilworth on January 2 while the previous fall was at Milnerton in September when a horse fell on top of him, necessitating two pins in his ankle.

By Michael Clower