Please Note: South African Quartet Pools with fractional betting offered at Pontefract and Wolverhampton (UK) – 7 July 2026

David Thiselton

 

Cape trainer Des McLachlan scored the first KZN Graded race win of his career on Saturday when landing the Gr 3 Post Merchants with Jet Force and it was his best KZN result since his Gr 1 Cape Guineas winner Ethno Centric placed in the Gr 1 SA Guineas in 2001.

 

McLachlan had formed a prolific partnership with Grant van Niekerk before the latter left to ride in Maurtitius and Van Niekerk flew over to ride Jet Force on Saturday.

 

It was Grant’s only ride on the day and he rode a pearler.

 

Jet Force was backed in from 20/1 to 5/1, which was not surprising as he came in with a record of two wins in three starts over the 1200m trip and his recent form over further was either wins or performances where not disgraced against the best of the best.

 

Jumping from a good draw of four Jet Force did not get the best of breaks but Van Niekerk managed too get him forward enough to find a position just backward of midfield.

 

After lifting his head momentarily he did settle well once he had cover.

 

At the top of the straight he still had plenty to do and had about five lengths to make up.

 

However, a nice gap opened for him and he ran on well through it to hit the front 100m out before fending off Buffalo Storm Cody and Tenango, beating them by half-a-length and 0,55 lengths respectively.

 

He had earlier overtaken the 7/2 favourite Buffalo Storm Cody as the latter was battling to get going on the outside. However, when Buffalo did find his big stride he was eating up the ground and, like last year, he put in a good preparation for the Gr 1 wfa Mercury Sprint over the same course and distance.

 

Des said he would also consider running him in the Mercury Sprint, which takes place three weeks after the Post Merchants on the 25^th of July.

 

He will only be 2kg worse off than Buffalo Storm Cody in the Mercury, so on paper will have a chance.

 

He has duly been nominated and is sitting with a fair draw at the time of writing of nine out of 26 horses still standing their ground, although there is a draw reversal against him with Buffalo Storm Cody as the latter was drawn nine on Saturday and is now drawn eight in the Mercury.

 

Jet Force will also be 2kg worse off with Tenango, who ran on superbly on Saturday from the back after jumping from draw five.

 

Tenango has landed a plum draw of two in the Mercury.

 

The Beaumont Stud-bred four-year-old Master Of My Fate gelding Jet Force was the last lot on the November Two Year Old Sale of 2023 and Des landed him for R350,000.

 

Des always goes to the stud farms before the Sales to look at horses and revealed, “I liked him all along and he just grew on you and grew on you, there was improvement all the time.”

 

He added, “Horses find you.”

 

He said, “He took a while to get going as he was very difficult, so we decided to cut him. We just gave him time to mature, we weren’t in a rush and he has done us proud up till now.”

 

Jet Force started his career in the February of his three-year-old year with a win over 1200m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth and has won seven out of his 13 starts to date, including the Listed Jet Master Stakes over 1600m and the Gr 3 Variety Club Mile.

 

Van Niekerk has ridden him to five of his victories.

 

Des’s long term aim for Jet Force is to go give him a break in Cape Town and then go for the Green Point and the L’Ormarins King’s Plate.

 

He concluded, “He was still a little bit immature in this year’s Green Point and King’s Plate, he was very, very green, he didn’t know what it was all about as the Green Point was only his third run around the turn. It was quite difficult for him, a lot for him to take on and he didn’t disgrace himself. I think he has got the ability to be competitive in features.”

 

Jet Force is owned by Messrs Denis Le Breton & A L Taylor, Mr K & Miss K Geemooi & Mrs G C Hutchinson.

 

David Thiselton

 

The Vercingetorix filly Quickstepgal has been superbly handled by former Kimberley trainer and now Summerveld trainer Tienie Prinsloo and she landed the second Gr 1 of her career at the Hollywoodbets Durban July meeting at Holywoodbets Greyville on Saturday when winning the prestigious Gr 1 wfa Ridgemont Garden Province Stakes over 1600m.

 

She came out of the race very well, but the Greenacres Trust (Marsh Shirtliff)-bred filly, who is owned by the Laurence Wernars family and Harry Willson is now going to be given a deserved holiday.

 

The big question is what she will do in her four-year-old season?

 

That is presuming she will stay in training, although there is not much left for her to prove, considering she has won seven of her 13 starts, including two Gr 1s, a Gr 2, a Gr 3 and a Listed race, and she has also had five Graded places for total earnings of R2,642,187.

 

The best option looks to be to stick to the three Gr 1 wfa miles around the country, the Maine Chance Farms Majorca at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth, the TAB Empress Club Stakes at Turffontein and the Garden Province at Hollywoodbets Greyville.

 

Tiene said she would not stay the 1800m of the Gr 1 Cartier Paddock Stakes.

 

He also revealed that sprints were likely out of the question as she liked to use her natural speed to run in a relaxed manner before quickening over 1400m to 1600m trips, while the flat out nature of a sprint fired her up a bit too much and did not do her any good in the preparation for her main game.

 

Prinsloo had been very confident in the buildup to Saturday and viewed her as a banker.

 

He became even more confident as the race panned out.

 

She can always be relied on to break well and she duly did.

 

Jockey Keagan de Melo then sat in a one out and one back position on the 7/2 shot and had her nice and relaxed with the fancied 5/2 chance Mon Petit Cherie

behind her and the 11/10 favourite Double Grand Slam behind that one.

 

De Melo did not chase the pacemaker Whistle The Tune when the latter went two or three lengths clear.

 

She was in the exact position Prinsloo liked to see her and he said, “When she quickens nobody is going to catch her.”

 

He added, “She doesn’t need to lead.”

 

She won the Gr 1 WSB Cape Fillies Guineas from the front, but Tienie said her burst was even more effective if held up just off the pace.

 

De Melo could afford to just sit on her until the 300m mark before getting to work and it was soon clear that the running on Mon Petite Cherie and Double Grand Slam were not going to catch her.

 

She crossed the line 1,30 lengths clear of Mon Petite Cherie with Double Grand Slam a head further back in third.

 

“That was the Quickstepgal I know,” said Tienie.

 

Tiene was glad for De Melo, who had got to know the filly well through three placed runs, before winning on her in the Gr 2 HKJC World Pool Tibouchina Stakes over 1400m last time out.

 

Tienie should get a lot of the accolades as he knows all the ins and outs of this filly and how exactly to prepare her.

 

In a fun moment on the course owner Laurence Wernars spoke in the winning interview, something he never does, but he had promised his daughters that the day they were present on course for a Gr 1 win he would do the interview.

 

Quickstepgal gave the champion sire Vercingetorix his 31^st stakes win of the season achieved with 21 horses.

 

He is in a race against time to break his own SA record of 23 stakes winners (of 33 races) he set last season.

 

Tienie signed for the Fire Away half-sister to Quickstepgal, Victory Blaze, at last week’s KZN Yearling Sale after securing her for R600,000, which was as opposed to the R450,000 Quickstepgal went for and the R1,3 million her full-sister went for, both at the same Sale in 2024 and 2025 respectively.

Please note: South African Quartet Pools with fractional betting offered at Lingfield and Ripon (UK) – 6 July 2026.

Andrew Harrison

Justin Snaith is now one short of equaling the legendary Syd Laird’s record of seven July wins after saddling the first two past the post in the R10 Million Hollywoodbets Durban July at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Saturday.

In a thrilling finish before a capacity crowd and in a one-two in joint owner Nancy Hossack’s colours, Note To Self got up to touch off the filly Wish List and deny 59-year-old Andrew Fortune in a race that he was hoping to bookend end his career. Third was rank outsider King Pelles with Viva’s Liberte in the shallow end of the purse.

It was not to be for Fortune although he will have had high hopes as Wish List burst out of the pack racing over the subway and looked to have the race in the bag. However, Richard Fourie, who had been biding his time in the pack, produced Note To Self with a telling late run down the outside of the straight. The two fought out a tight finish with the gelding getting the better of the filly inside the last 100m for Fourie’s fourth win in the race.

Fortune was supremely confident before the race but in a gesture of sportsmanship, stretching out his hand to congratulate Fourie after crossing the line.

Surprisingly, top weight Legal Counsel made the pace but had done his job turning for home leaving stable mate Wish List to take up the cuddles. It looked to have been a well thought-out strategy for the filly before Note To Self arrived on the scene.

Fourie was circumspect when quizzed about his early move at the 800m mark and said, “I don’t know. I blacked out at the top of the straight.

But added, “There’s no better feeling than winning it the first time but maybe second time with Do It Again, but it’s a great feeling. Just doing it in front of 50 thousand people at Greyville it’s such a feeling, the rush. I can’t explain the sound when everybody is shouting at you in the middle. It’s like being in a canyon. It was just a lovely race and was as sweet as it can be.”

Snaith heaped praise on his charge Note To Self. “I heard a couple of people say ‘what has he done up to now,’ and I knew he was going to come to the fore sort of at the right time but we were always wandering if it was one year early as he is a very immature horse.

“You saw him walking in the pre-race, he is unconscious, but this last week I said to everybody you can excuse the Daily News he was not right and had a temperature for two days after that and I had to really nurse him and do a lot of work and just making him feel better and get his coat right and all of a sudden this week in the last three days he took off. He was just a different horse and I knew that everyone was in trouble. He just walks around, he’s just a leopard, he is the most unassuming stunning individual and I knew that if he came right he was the horse to beat in this field.”

Not To Self was bred by Varsfontein Stud and owned by Jonathan Bloch, Jonathan Snaith and Nancy Hossack whose black and white silks where the first two past the post.

Tienie Prinsloo was not always confident that Quickstepgal would be at her best over 1600m when taking on the best but it was it was confidence misplaced as Qucikstepgal made short work of a high class field in the Gr1 Ridgemont Garden Province Stakes. It was always going to be a three-way contest and so it proved. Quickstepgal was up with the pace and quickened smartly crossing the subway and was not for the catching. Double Grand Slam and Mon Petit Cherie were left fighting it out for the minor money.

Buffalo Storm Cody drifted alarmingly in the betting for the Gr3 Post Merchants and although beaten he was no disgraced as Jet Force put it all together in the Gr3 Post Merchants. Des McLachlan is a rare visitor to KZN and Grant van Niekerk made the flight from Mauritius and was having his only ride on the day. That should have been the office for astute followers of the game. Taking on the Gr1 winning Questioning at his last two starts over further he will have sharpened up for this race and duly arrived, bursting out of the pack with a furlong to run. Buffalo Storm Cody came wide into the straight but was not able to peg back Jet Force who had got first run.

Zak Lloyd, fresh from a win at Royal Ascot, was on the winner’s podium after just his second ride in South Africa as he scored a bloodless victory on Magic Verse in the Gr3 Magical Zulu Kingdom 2200m as Justin Snaith got his afternoon off to the best of starts, winning three of the first four races on the card and it got a lot better later.

In a race run at no great pace, Lloyd had Magic Verse well placed behind a pedestrian gallop and pressed for home early. The gelding responded willingly under minimum effort from the saddle and soon had the better of a game Johnny The Thief who stayed on ahead of Otto Luyken for the minor money.

It was the turn of the heavily supported Ahead Of The Facts in the 3000m Gr3 Durban Gold Vase as Fourie produced the favourite with a telling late run up the inside fence to have the race sewn up inside the last furlong.

Favourites were the order of the day leading into the Gr2 Amusnet Golden Slipper where Alice B Toklas found plenty of support but it was not to be. Palace Of Arvenia, some times three wide on the turn, was given a confident ride by national log-leading rider Craig Zackey. Dean Kannemeyer seldom wants his runners up with the early pace and Palace Of Arvenia quickened well coming wide into the straight and was not for the catching. Alice B Toklas was a tad unlucky as Too Fast To Fiesta hung in badly forcing Fourie to ease and switch which may well have cost him victory as Sean Tarry’s filly finished off her race strongly for second.

Vibe Check got the favourites back on track as Vaughan Marshall’s colt made all the running in the Gr2 Omoda Golden Horseshoe. Well supported in the betting Sean Veale made the most of the mayor’s office draw and was in the front from the jump. He had a good lead coming into the straight but suddenly the two international riders, Zak Lloyd and Chad Schofield made a race of it as Green Energy and the filly Secretary Bird shot out of the pack. However, Vibe Check held on and indications are that he will try his luck on the Gr1 World Pool Moment of the Day Champion Stakes on HKJC Gold Cup Day at the end of the month.