The Vodacom Durban July weights will be published today and the Gr 3 Cup Trial winner Punta Arenas has been the most unfavourably affected of the big race’s contestants after the handicapping changes made in the wake of Saturday’s big Gr 1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge meeting. The connections of Helderberg Blue have the most to smile about, although he is still a borderline cases just to make the final field.
Punta Arenas was raised three points for the win and is now merit rated 109, meaning he will be set to carry 54,5kg in the July. Helderberg Blue finished a 2,5 length fourth in the Cup Trial and has been lowered to 107, meaning he will carry 53,5kg and will be 4,5kg better off with the July favourite and topweight Futura for a 2,35 length defeat in the J&B Met. Dynamic was used as the line horse in the Cup Trial but carried 0,5kg overweight so has been raised one point to a merit rating of 101. However, this will not affect his July weight as the minimum weight for four-year-olds and older is 53kg.
Therefore Dynamic will be 2,5kg under sufferance in the big race. Helderberg Blue and Dynamic were both among the five horses just outside the top 20 of the last July log. Legislate’s scratching will provide an opening and they will also likely leapfrog Athina, who was in 20th place on the last log before trailing in last in Saturday’s Cup Trial. However, this means that as things stand two top 20 July log incumbents will have to be dropped by the final field panellists to make places for Dynamic and Helderberg Blue in the final field of 18.
Futura, Halve The Deficit and No Worries, who finished fourth, sixth and ninth respectively in the Gold Challenge, remain on their merit ratings of 120, 109 and 111 respectively, meaning they will be set to carry weights of 60kg, 54,5kg and 55,5 kg respectively in the July. The Cup Trial’s King Of Pain was unsighted in the last July log and his 4,9 length eighth in Saturday’s Gr 1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge is unlikely to earn him a place in the final field. The handicapper has duly dropped him four points to 110.
The Gold Challenge runner up Willow Magic was raised from 103 to 107 and third-placed Bezanova, who was a neck further back, was raised two points to 107. However, neither of them are July entries. The 1,4 length fifth-placed Night Trip was raised five points from 101 to 106, while last placed Ashton Park was lowered from 108 to 106, but neither of them are July entries either.
The other merit rating changes made in the Cup Trial were to the runner up Wild One, fifth-placed Kochka, seventh-placed Bold Inspiration and tenth-placed Whiteline Fever. Wild One, who was runner up in last year’s Gr 1 eLan Property Group Gold Cup and is on course for that race again, was raised one point to a merit rating of 100. Kochka was lowered two points to 101 and might be hard to beat in the Listed Thukela Handicap over 1600m on July day, which is his new target after being scratched from the big one yesterday. Bold Inspiration and Whiteline Fever were each lowered two points to merit ratings of 99 and 103 respectively.
By David Thiselton
Helderberg Blue (Liesl King)
