David Thiselton
The big question after the Gr 1 Daily News 2000 and Gr 2 Woolavington 2000 is whether the two respective winners, Eight On Eighteen and Little Suzie, will run in the Hollywoodbets Durban July and how the handicappers will view the race.
The pair gave Justin Snaith a big race double on the day and it was the third time Snaith had won the Daily News and the sixth time he had won the Woolavington. 
It was a great day for Johann and Gaynor Rupert. 
Gaynor’s Drakenstein Stud bred Eight On Eighteen and Johann is a part-owner of the now three-times Gr 1-winning superstar. 
Furthermore, it was an incredible fourth time in succession a Drakenstein homebred had won the Woolavington.  
Trippi filly Little Suzie’s win was particularly gratifying for the Snaith and Drakenstein Stud racing teams as she is a daughter of the great Oh Susanna, who won this race for the partnership in 2018. 
To add to the day’s success, Gaynor’s U.K. Stud operation, Cayton Park Stud, won a big handicap race at The Curragh in Ireland on Saturday with a Ed Dunlop-trained homebred colt called Skukuza, who is out of a Trippi mare called Shingwedzi.
Little Suzie became Drakenstein’s 18^th stakes winner of the season, which leaves them three short of their own SA record of 21 stakes winners in a season. 
The other part-owner of Eight On Eighteen is Nick Jonsson, who won the Daily News 2000 for a second time.
The Daily News field was reduced to six runners when Gr 1 SA Classic winner Confederate was scratched for an elevated TCO2 level.  
Eight On Eighteen jumped from the widest draw and was relaxed in last place under Richard Fourie as stablemate Makazole ensured a reasonable pace up front.
Eight On Eighteen rounded the field just before entering the straight, still travelling under a double handful. 
He had hit the front by the 400m mark such was his phenomenal turn of foot and Fourie just had to drive him out with the hands to secure a 3,80 length victory.
The handicapper is unlikely to touch Eight On Eighteen’s merit rating, considering he was at least 7,5kg better off than any of the placed horses, while the horse he was only 3kg better off with, i.e. Parisian Walkway, failed to match his 1600m performance for the fourth time in succession over further trips. 
The handicppers are also likely to be lenient on the rest of the field, due to the ease of victory. 
Spumante Dolce will therefore likely be used as the line horse.
With her gender allowance taken into consideration, this 117-rated filly effectively ran off a 112 merit rating.
So that would bring third-placed Okavango, who was beaten 0,25 lengths by Spumante Dolce, up to about a 112 and would put Native Ruler, who was beaten 0,50 lengths by Spumante Dolce, up to 111.
Spumante Dolce was in 13^th place on the July log and the proximity to her of Okavango and Native Ruler will give that pair a chance of getting on to the July log. 
However, they would have to leapfrog horses who are considerably higher rated than them to get into the top 20, presuming they will be rated 112 and 111 respectively. The only horse rated lower than 115 in the top 20 at present is the winner of the WSB 1900, Selukwe, and the winner of that race is usually given preferential treatment for July final field inclusion. Furthermore, Selukwe, performed better than both Okavango and Native Ruler in the WSB 1900 even if the weights are taken into consideration.
Justin Snaith said it would always be tempting to run in a great race like the Hollywoodbets Durban July, but also spoke of how hard a race it was on a horse, so with a lot of Eight On Eighteen’s career still ahead of him the final decision to run him would only come after careful consideration by all the connections.
The Lancaster Bomber colt would become only the eighth horse in history to have won both the Met and the July and would be the first in history to have completed that double as a three-year-old, so that would be a great accolade to have on his stud CV.
Richard Fourie believed the July will be the choice and said, “He is going about his business the right way and setting himself nicely for the July. I think the July would be the ideal target because he’s won the Met as a three-year-old already and is capped at 57kg in the July. He’s a quality horse and a big strong horse and can carry the weight.”
Little Suzie ran on well from a handy position under Sean Veale, although the latter will likely get a holiday as the filly hung inward and interfered with Rainbow Lorikeet, who was an unlucky 1,70 length fourth carrying topweight.
Little Suzie is unlikely to get much of a raise from her 106 merit rating as she was facing the 107 rated runner up My Soul Mate on 1kg terms better than weight for age   
She faced fifth placed 114-rated Beating Wings on 3,5kg better than weight for age and beat her by 2,20 lengths, so that could see her raised to about 111.
However, the Woolavington 2000 is also a race that might receive preferential treatment for July final field inclusion.
Little Suzie would have to be supplemented if she is going to run and Jonathan Snaith said, “She is progressive, she was a very immature two-year-old and is a late three-year-old and she has always been unlucky throughout her career. If you look at her her last run it was an incredible run if you watch the replay and that is why we fancied her so strongly today knowing she would relish the step up in trip. We will discuss it with the connections about supplementing her.”