Andrew Harrison

Hollywoodbets Scottsville patrons were treated to a brilliant display of jockeyship and courageous horses on Saturday with all nine races highly contested, none more so than the Gr1 SA Fillies Sprint Brough to you by The Witness and Gr1 Gold Medallion, the headline features on the day.

Close finishes are what always what get the pulse racing but when two top class horses go head-to-head it takes the heart beat a few beats higher and that is what patrons got in the Gr1 Gold Medallion.

Rich Man’s World had shown that he was a horse to be reckoned with when disposing of the highly rated Master Magician at his last start and Haute Couture was still an unknown even after demolishing his maiden field on debut just two weeks back.

Both horses jumped well and it was clear a long way out that it was going to be a match race. Callan Murray sat Haute Couture in behind Richard Fourie on Rich Man’s Gold with the balance of the field not in the race.

From there on it was a case of who was going to blink first, Fourie or Murray. Leaving the 400m lollipop behind Murray’s arms were the first to push but Fourie was wise to the move and over the final 200m it was anyone’s race with two smart colts giving it their best with Haute Couture just out-lasting Rich Man’s Gold.

Murray said post-race, “When Richard’s horse was a bit keen I thought that I would just take a seat off him. My horse is very tractable. That’s going to help him a lot going forward, switch him off and turn him on whenever I need him to. Today he turned on when I asked him and put a really good field to bed.”

“Today we saw two fantastic horses,” said winning trainer Mathew de Kock. “We hope to see them against each other in the future.”

If the Medallion was a tactical battle, the Gr1 SA Fillies Sprint Brough to you by the Witness was a scrambled egg for the two main contenders, Asiye Phambili and Double Grand Slam.

The pair were in all sorts of trouble 400 m out, both faced with a wall of traffic as the field concertinaed up the inside rail. Asiye Phambili was under big pressure through the halfway mark with Sean Veale hard at work chasing Double Grand Slam who looked to have got the drop on Duncan Howells’s mare. Veale then switched his mount out into daylight and Asiye Phambili responded with a sustained finish. Andrew Fortune had his own troubles finding a passage and eventually shifted in dramatically to find a gap. When it opened, Double Grand Slam quickened through and the race boiled down to a 200m battle with two great mares fighting it out and the balance watching.

There was a head separating them at the line but Asiye Phambili went one better than she did last year and a well-deserved Gr1 victory and Sean Veale finally vindicated.

The Gr2 Golden Horse Sprint was always going to be a dogfight and so it proved as the majority of the 16-horse field finished within three lengths of the winner Taxi To The Moon in a thrilling spectacle.

Tony Peter’s gelding had shown his best recent form over 1000m and there were doubts about whether he would see out the extra furlong in tough company.

Given Tristan Godden’s pre-race instructions, the stable were never any doubt that Taxi To The Moon would see out the trip and although it was a close-run thing at the finish the gelding poked his nose in front when it mattered. He edged out Café Culture and favourite One Eye On Vegas  with reserve runner Kaalvoet finishing strongly for the shallow end of the purse.

It was something of a chance mount for Godden who had to hunt around for a ride but he is riding with great confidence since his win in the Gr1 Betway Summer Cup and so it proved.

Instructions were to have his mount in the vanguard. “At the 600 I let him find himself, give him a bit of a breather and he quickened up very well.”

Dennis Drier was once regarded as the ‘King of Scottsville’ but Sean Tarry has since taken over the mantle. The Allan Robertson Fillies Championship was always in the past a Gr1 race before being down-graded to Gr2 an Tarry was denied his 22^nd Gr1 at the Hollywoodbets Scottsville track as Get Up simply destroyed a smart field under Gavin Lerena.

Always in the vanguard, Lerna said,  “It was just about getting her into a rhythm and she is so natural. She really enjoyed it out there and I just hung onto her as long as I could, as I always thought that I had a very good filly under me. She’s won a very good race.”

Tarry was looking for a crack at the colts in the Gr1 Gold Medallion. “ I was looking to see where she would fit in as this was a Gr1 and this is no longer a Gr1. It’s heart breaking. These are proper races that have been down-graded. We were going for the Gr1 but at the last minute Kevin (Somerville, Drakenstein’s racing manager) said hang on, let’s go for the Gr2,” that in hindsight was probably the best move given the results.

David Thiselton

The Jackpot of Graded features at Hollywoodbets Scottsville on Saturday culminated in six-year-old Asiye Phambili becoming the most deserved Gr 1 winner for the last season or two under an outstanding ride by Sean Veale in the SA Fillies Sprint.

It was an emotional moment all round for Veale, the Hollywood Racing team and for trainer Duncan Howells when the slow motion replay showed that the 2/1 chance Asiye Phambili had prevailed by an official margin of a neck over the 18/10 favourite Double Grand Slam.

Howells is not known for outward displays of emotion and said in an interview on Sunday, “It is the closest a horse has ever brought me to tears. It was a race I really wanted to win and it was chiefly for the horse’s sake. I felt it was the best highlight of my training career, it was really very, very special.”

The strong but athletically built What A Winter filly actively looked proud of herself after the race as she trotted back to her groom.

She stood for a moment with head raised majestically, ears pricked and surveyed her surrounds. After a number of near misses she was finally able to say, “I am the Champ.”

Duncan continued, “She is a lovely filly and is one of those horses that grows on you.”

Sean Veale was emotional afterwards too and thanked Hollywood Racing’s racing manager Anthony Delpech for “having his back” as the choice of jockey.

Gavin Lerena is the other chief Hollywood Racing jockey and had ridden Asiye Phambili in her last start in Cape Town in the Diadem. He was on the injury list when Asiye Phambili had her first start of this season’s Champions Season in the traditional SA Fillies Sprint pointer race, the Gr 3 Poinsettia Stakes over the same Hollywoodbets Scottsville 1200m course and distance, a race in which she put in one of her most impressive career performances, running out a 3,70 length winner under Veale.

It would not have been an easy choice for Delpech. considering Lerena is a twice SA Champion Jockey and is the reigning Champion.

Delpech opted to keep Veale aboard and Howells knew he had made the right decision.

He said, “I wouldn’t have thought it fair to put on a jockey who had only ridden her once. He had to have somebody on the horse who knew the horse, it wasn’t a debate about the expertise of riders. Sean Veale knew the horse backwards. You can’t change that and you may never get another chance of winning a race like this. Sometimes it could work against you, but I felt in this situation it would work in her favour.”

Veale paid back the faith shown in him with the ride of the season.

Pre-race planning goes into any race and with this Gr 1 being viewed as a two horse race between Double Grand Slam and Asiye Phambili it could be predicted that it might boil down to the tactics employed by the two  jockeys involved, Andrew Fortune and Sean Veale respectively.

In Hollywoodbets Scottsville’s big sprint races the horses tend to drift from the outside draws inward and this creates traffic problems for horses coming from off the pace from inside positions.

With Fortune drawn ten and Veale eight it was predictable that Fortune would sit on the outside of Veale and box Asiye Phambili in … and that is exactly what he did.

However, Veale responded superbly to the situation even if it initially looked like the filly was in trouble as she ended up further back than she would have liked.

He dropped Asiye Phambili behind Double Grand Slam and with the pace on in the race he began driving her to build up momentum for an early move.

Meanwhile, Fortune’s tactic did have its consequences because Princess Of Gaul came from a wide draw and sat on his outside, forcing him to check slightly before diving for a gap all the way to the inside.

Michael Roberts, South Africa’s only Hall Of Fame jockey was known for his tactical superiority and he based it all on doing what the other jockeys had least expected.

Veale then delivered his trump card.

He switched to the outside of Princess Of Gaul and began charging for the line just after the 400m mark, plotting a straight course to the line, an unexpected move considering the best going had appeared, from previous races on the day, to be on the inside.

Meanwhile, Fortune had burst clear on the inside rail and it would be reasonable to assume he believed Asiye Phambili to be buried somewhere back in the scrum. He must have been shocked to see her surging up to him wide out in the centre.

Asiye Phambili did begin hanging towards her rival, as is natural for a racehorse, but she had momentum on her side.

They flashed past the line together just a couple of metres apart.

Howells thought she had been beaten.

He said, “Last year I thought she had got beat but thought we had a squeak of winning it. This year I genuinely thought she had got beat.”

Duncan was over the moon when the slow motion replay confirmed she had clearly won, although the official margin of a neck is surprising … it looked closer even in the slow motion replay.

Duncan reflected on the moment two years ago when the preparation had gone just as perfectly as it had this year only for the jockey Rachel Venniker to be dislodged at the start after Asiye Phambili had pecked badly.

He said whilst he did not think she was better today than back then he believed her to be tougher.

“She is a very hardy filly, she’s been going flat out for three years and traveling up and down and she’s never let us down. She has been a bit of a miracle horse.”

Duncan revealed the key to preparing an older mare like her, “Older horses sometimes maintain their fitness better than younger horses because they have been through the mill before and often, as is the case with her, you have to keep them fresh to maintain their attitude.”

Duncan had bumped into Andrew Fortune in Checkers on Friday night and there was a bit of banter.

On Sunday he magnanimously praised Fortune for a fine tactical ride, but was outwardly proud of the hard-working Veale for delivering the stable its ninth Gr 1 victory.

Please note: South African Quartet Pools with fractional betting offered at Uttoxeter (UK) and Curragh (World Pool) (IRE) – 24 May 2026.

David Thiselton

 

The July build up of 60 years ago was like no other before it and It is fitting that this year’s Hollywoodbets Durban July, carrying a record-breaking stake of R10 million, falls on such an auspicious anniversary date

In the month of May 60 years ago the great Sea Cottage began his July preparation by running in a race often used by Syd Laird as starting point for his best July contender, the Gr 1 Newbury Stakes over 1200m.

Sea Cottage beat another famous horse in the 1966 Newbury renewal, the previous year’s Gr 1 SA Guineas winner William Penn, whose story bears repeating.

Willaim Penn had won six Grade 1s up until being retired to stud in 1969 and was a July runner up by half-a-length in 1968, carrying topweight and giving the winner Chimboraa 24 pounds.

His wins included the 1968 J&B Met with topweight. He was two-one up in meetings between himself and his more celebrated half-brother Hawaii, who went on to become USA’s Champion Grass Horse as well as a successful sire, standing at Claiborne where he produced 25 stakes winners including Epsom Derby winner Henbit. William Penn proved infertile at stud, siring only nine foals, although they included three stakes winners. He was brought out of retirement as a ten-year-old and the first run of his comeback was in the J&B Met of January 1972. He flew up for second, three lengths behind the winner Force Ten to whom he gave 18 pounds. He went on to race successfully until he was eleven, the best performance of his final season being a 0,2 length second to the great In Full Flight in the Grade 1 Champions Stakes over 2000m at Greyville, beating another champion, Mazarin.

Back To Sea Cottage who was back at Greyville a week after the Newbury Stakes to win the Gr 1 SA Guineas by 3,5 lengths, his eleventh career victory in just 12 starts.

Six days later the country woke up to shocking news.

On that bright Friday morning Sea Cottage had been shot while walking under the Blue Lagoon bridge on the way to the Syd Laird ring on the beach.

The story is well documented with the shooter Johnny Nel being apprehended later the same day. The well-known gangster had foolishly used his easily recognisable yellow-coloured convertible to drive to the shelter on the south side of the bridge, which is still the same structure today as it was back then, to perform the dastardly deed.

He was allegedly acting on behalf of bookmaker Sonny Chislett, who had allegedly approached the owner of the Monaco Club, Monty Labuschagne, with the news that if Sea Cottage won the July he would have to close his business and therefore he demanded the debt he was owed by the latter be paid up.

Labuschagne’s alleged response was what would it be worth if they stopped Sea Cottage from winning the July and Chislett’s alleged response was that he would forego the debt.

It was Nel, a bouncer at the Monaco club, who hatched the plan.

If Nel can be forgiven to any extent it was in his later testimony that he had found it difficult to shoot an animal and had deliberately aimed for the soft flesh of the hindquarter in order to not kill him.

Syd Laird was still able to nurture Sea Cottage through the worst of the injury and he had him ready to run in the July three weeks after the shooting.

The big bay unfortunately suffered interference at a crucial stage and ended up running a four length fourth.

It was a bitter-sweet day for Laird because Sea Cottage’s six-year-old stablemate Java Head won the race.

However, the following year saw the July’s most celebrated renewal.

The 1967 SA Guineas winner Jollify, who was receiving 27 pounds from Sea Cottage, stole a march at the top of the straight under a fine ride by John Gorton.

Sea Cottage had a lot of ground to make up, but began eating up the ground.

He had to get around King Willow, who was going straight, before the natural instinct of shifting towards the leader, was able to happen.

A flying Sea Cottage with his enormous stride bore down on the three-year-old, despite the latter showing no signs of stopping.

The two Birch Brothers-bred horses flashed past the post together.

But had Sea Cottage got there in time?

Commentator Ernie Duffield thought not and said, “I think Jollify has held on.”

Minutes later the on course crowd let out a roar when the numbers were put up together to declare a dead-heat.

But the rest of the country apparently had to endure an agonising wait for news as the radio commentary ended and they went back to the  studio.

Craig Peters, who has by the way commentated 39 Julys, ten more than Ernie Duffield’s previous record of 29, recalled that day, at which time he was a young boy living with his parents in Mayfair, Johannesburg.

He said, “It was only sometime later on Pat Carr’s Forces Favourites program that we heard it was a dead-heat and I was absolutely elated (especially considering he had shed tears after Sea Cottage’s defeat the previous year). We saw the photo in the Stop Press and about two weeks later we watched the African Mirror footage of the race at the Drive-In. I remember also being at Sea Cottage’s last ever race, the Cutty Sark at Gosforth Park, which attracted a massive crowd. I watched by standing on the bonnet of my father’s car.”

“The immortal” Sea Cottage won twenty of his 24 races and there was still a reminder of him nearby at Hollywoodbets Greyville until recent years.

Syd Laird had always been terrified somebody would “get to” Sea Cottage and had metal plates fitted over the air vents on the road side of his stable.

His old stable served as a vendor stall in recent times at The Stables Lifestyle Market next to the Hollywoodbets KIng’s Park rugby stadium.

His stable was the third one down from the main entrance.

Those rusty metal plates were still in place across the air vents on the roadside of the stall until the closure of the market in March 2020.

Sadly, the building soon became completely dilapidated and an intriguing piece of Durban history went down with it.

David Thiselton

 

There are 63 entries for the R10 million Hollywoodbets Durban July to be run on July 4 over 2200m at Hollywoodbets Greyville.

 

Champion trainer Justin Snaith, who is going for a sixth July win, led the way with ten entries headed by the WSB Cape Town Met and World Pool Premier’s Champions Challenge winner See It Again. He also has last year’s July runner up Eight On Eighteen in his team as well as dual Gr 1 winner Wish List, the Met runner up Legal Counsel, the exciting Lucky Fish Cape Derby runner up Note To Self as well as Okavango, Happy Verse, Native Ruler, Regulation and Great Plains. Note To Self could be the one to side with, because this big son of Futura has a fine turn of foot and as things stand will have a nice galloping weight of 54kg, presuming the 130 rated See It Again will stand his ground and be allotted top weight of 62kg.

 

The race has new conditions with the difference between this year’s and last year’s being there is a 10kg spread as opposed to a 8kg spread; there are no maximum or minimum weights for three-year-old males or for three-year-old females or for older females, and there are no minimum weights for older males.

Rather it is just a straight handicap with the normal weight for age allowances, which in the case of a 2200m race taking place in the month of July is a 2kg weight for age allowance for the three-year-olds.

Mike de Kock has also won five Julys and will now be attempting to win one as a partner of his son Mathew. They have four entries headed by Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas winner Jan Van Goyen, Gr 2 SA Derby winner Curious Girl, Gr 2 Gauteng Guineas winner Splittheeights and the former Zimbabwean Triple Crown winner Buster Barnes. Of those Splittheeights looks to have some fine formlines and is potentially well weighted, although as things stand he is officially 2,5kg under sufferance off a 109 merit rating.

Dean Kannemeyer will be going for a fifth win in the big race, but last year’s winner The Real Prince is his sole entry.

Sean Tarry has won the July twice before and he has entered three horses, including Gr 1 SA Classic winner Grand Empire. The latter is officially 1,5kg under sufferance as things stand, an unusual occurrence for a Gr 1 winner, so he has to be considered potentially well weighted.

James Crawford now heads the yard who won the race twice in succession in 2023 and 2024 as his father Brett has relocated to Hong Kong.

James played a big part in both victories and has three entries, including the progressive pair Star Major and Reet Petite. They both have the perfect merit rating for a three-year-old as things stand, 114, because that means they come into the race with bottom weight of 52kg and they sneak into the handicap.

The other three trainers with entries who have won the race before are Alec Laird, Glen Kotzen and Candice Bass.

Laird has a big entry of six, headed by the Gr 1 winners Fire Attack and Atticus Finch. Fire Attack has had a disappointing season, but at his best he possesses a strong finish, so can’t be written off. Atticus Finch suffered epistaxis in last year’s race, but if things go well for him this former Betway Summer Cup winner has the class to be a threat, although he will have to carry a big weight of 60,5kg off his 127 rating as things stand.

Kotzen has entered the brave stayer Holding Thumbs, who will try his heart out.

Bass has three entries including the dependable Rainbow Lorikeet and the exciting three-year-old prospect Viva’s Liberte, the best of whom is unlikely to have been seen yet.

Another interesting entry is the Jackpot City Dingaans winner Trust, who was a narrow runner up in the SA Classic and he looks potentially well weighted off a mere 110 rating, which officially puts him 2kg under sufferance as things stand. He will be out to give July nearly man Larry Nestadt a first win in the big race and the other owners, Gary Player and the Lindsay Ralphs family, will also be trying to win the July for the first time.

The filly who only just missed landing the Triple Tiara, the Corne Spies-trained Hazy Dazy, is an entry.

KZN have plenty of entries headed by the Frank Robinson-trained Betway Summer Cup winner Mocha Blend, the Stuart Ferrie-trained Gr 1 Champions Cup winner Gladatorian,  the Gareth van Zyl-trained champion stayer King Pelles and his SA Derby runner up stablemate Salani Kahle, the Nathan Kotzen-trained stayer Shoot The Rapids and his improving stablemate Field Marshal, Peter Muscutt has three entries including I Salute You, Michael Roberts has entered the classy Ladyofdistinction and there are also entries from Darryl Moore and MJ Odendaal.

Devin Heffer, Hollywoodbets Brand and Communications manager, said, “It has been a privilege for us as a leading brand to be associated with this internationally acclaimed sporting event since 2022, and every year it just gets bigger and better. With the adjustment in the race conditions and a doubling of the prize money to a record new stakes pot, the first entries list is proof that the stars are aligned and  Hollywoodbets Greyville is set to live up to its label of the ‘Theatre of Champions’ on 4 July”.