The Vodacom Durban July entries were announced at the South African Champions Season launch at Greyville last Thursday and punters and pundits immediately began speculating, while fashionistas were thinking along different lines as the July theme “Leader Of The Pack” was emphasised.

Legal Eagle and Abashiri are the standouts in terms of class and both have the potential to become greats. The term great is over used but true greats have been popping up regularly all over the world these days.

Smart Call, rated sixth best horse in the world after her Maine Chance Paddock Stakes and J&B Met romps, has departed the country. This leaves Legal Eagle as the top merit rated horse on 120. However, without the chance to exact revenge on Smart Call, he will have to go some to be regarded as “great”.

However, he recently added the Gr 1 HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes to his Gr 1 L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate win, proving himself the country’s best miler. He has already proved he stays the July trip, having won the SA Derby in impressive style last year. However, the downside to his July chances are his failure to win the big race last year when weighted off a merit rating of 112. On the upside he suffered interference in the straight which affected his momentum and, but for that, he could possibly have won.

In the past, great horses like Politician have failed as three-year-olds with light weights before coming back to win it with topweight the following year. Interestingly, Legal Eagle finished fifth in his three-year-old year, the same position Politician managed. In the Rising Sun Gold Challenge, Legal Eagle will attempt to emulate Politician by winning three Gr 1 weight for age miles in his four-year-old year. He will deserve a mention alongside the great milers if he does it. If he also wins either the Premier’s Champions Challenge or the July, or both, he will probably deserve the unconditional title “great”.

Abashiri is on the cusp of becoming the third horse to win the Triple Crown. His SA Classic win was breathtaking and possibly the best performance Turffontein had seen since Horse Chestnut cantered home by close to ten lengths in the SA Derby in 1999. Three-year-olds have been a force in the July since the merit rating system began. In previous years they appear to have battled to make it into the field, presumably due to the high race figures of the older horses. London News, for example, was the only three-year-old in the field when winning it in 1996 and so was his father Bush Telegraph when winning it in 1987.

Many of the best older horses these days are campaigning overseas, so the days of “a three-year-old cannot win with that weight” are over. Bold Silvano won it with 55,5kg in 2010, the filly Igugu won it with 55kg in 2011, Pomodoro won it with 55kg in 2012 and Legislate won it with 56kg in 2014.

As things stand, Abashiri would have to carry 56,5kg and has impressed as one who is up to such a task if taking his place. The maximum weight a three-year-old is allowed to carry, according to the conditions, is 57kg, unless he or she is the highest net merit rated horse. His or her weight in the latter case would likely have to be dragged upward, although the handicappers still have the right to handicap the race at their sole discretion. Abashiri would have to come into the race with a 125 merit rating, as things stand, to have the highest net merit rating. This is an unlikely scenario considering he is weighted to romp home in the SA Derby.

The SA Champions Season often unearths a three-year-old who arrives in KZN relatively unknown and such a horse could be Baritone. He finished a running on short-head second in the Byerley Turk over 1400m, despite giving 4kg to the winner Mambo Mime. As an immature sort who is progressing all the time, and as one who will much prefer the 1600m trip of the Gr 2 Canon Guineas as well as the 2000m trip of the Daily News 2000, he could establish himself as a top July contender in the next couple of months.

Well handicapped older horses also have to be respected and Deo Juvente off a merit rating of 106 makes appeal because as things stand he will sneak in with the minimum weight for an older horse of 53kg and that would be his actual handicap weight anyway. He looks to have the potential to rise above that rating.

The crack three-year-old filly Silver Mountain as things stand would only be required to carry 53kg so has to be respected too.

It will be tough for connections of the best horses to avoid the lure of the July, despite its longstanding reputation as an ultra tough race which can take a lot out of a horse, because the stake now stands at R4,25 million.

The false rail will be a maximum of one metre this year to encourage horses to use the whole width of the straight, which is considerably narrower since the building of the polytrack in 2014.

The well thought out July theme, “Leader Of The Pack”, brings the suits of cards into play which is fitting. Hearts will both reflect passion and the international colour of the year, red. Diamonds are for the glitz and glamour of the July, Spades are for all the hard work which goes into organising it and Clubs are for the clubbing crowds, who flock to the event these days. “Leader” applies to the July’s standing as the greatest race in Africa.

Fashion designers will have plenty to work with and will be hard at work because this is one of the most important events on the fashion calendar and offers the opportunity for young designers to break into the big time.

By David Thiselton