Cape Derby winner Golden Ducat has been given the go-ahead to travel to Durban for the KZN season and so the intriguing possibility of his coming up against elder half-brother Rainbow Bridge in the Vodacom Durban July could be on the cards.  And indeed Hawwaam, the third Grade 1-winning half-brother, may be there too.

Eric Sands had serious reservations about sending Golden Ducat, explaining: “He had an issue with his hock as a baby and I was a little concerned about him on the hill at Summerveld. I thought I might be aggravating the situation but on the other hand I felt that I couldn’t leave him in his box and protect him for ever.

“So we had a discussion with all concerned (including the owners and Jehan Malherbe), and we decided he should go. The programme as of now is the Daisy Guineas (May 1), the Daily News (June 6) and maybe the July.”

The Cape Derby winner has gone on to take that season’s Durban July three times in the last 17 years with Dynasty (2003), Big City Life in 2009 and Legislate six years ago. Golden Ducat is a best-priced 33-1 in the pre-nomination July betting. Rainbow Bridge is second favourite at 11-2 and Hawwaam heads the market at 4-1.

Rainbow Bridge, beaten less than half a length in last season’s race, returned to Milnerton from his holiday home near Paarl last week and, according to his trainer, “is looking really well.”

He and Golden Ducat will travel to Summerveld at the beginning of next month as will WSB Cape Fillies Guineas runner-up Driving Miss Daisy. Sands  has still to make a decision about Larentina who was fourth in that classic.

Rainbow Bridge will follow the same route as last year – the Independent On Saturday Drill Hall (May 1), the Rising Sun Gold Challenge on June 13 and then the July – but his trainer is concerned about the different timetable, largely caused by the way the calendar falls.

He explained: “Last year there were five weeks between the Drill Hall and the Gold Challenge with a further four weeks before the July. But this time the respective gaps are six weeks and three weeks. If something goes wrong in the Gold Challenge – a bruised foot or a bang on a joint for example – you have that much less time to get the horse right for the July.

“Furthermore you are expected to take the horse to the course for the gallops in those last three weeks, and I don’t see the point in going there just to give him a canter.”

Viva Rio

Ex-jockey Jimmy Ting will train Viva Rio when the Cape Derby ante-post favourite reaches Hong Kong. Ting, a relative newcomer to the training ranks, is currently tenth on the log with 24 winners.

Those who backed the horse would have preferred him to have run in the February 22 classic – and so, apparently, would have Glen Kotzen but under the terms of the deal (brokered by Green Street Bloodstock) the horse was sold without the engagement.

“It would have been lovely to get the money and win the Derby – and I tried to get a deal with the engagement – but the purchasers didn’t want that,” Kotzen explained. “In fact I thought we were going to run which was why I didn’t scratch him until the Friday afternoon. I had to wait for the money to come through.”

The exact sum has not been revealed but Kotzen says that, even if Viva Rio won the Derby, the July and a whole lot more, he would not have earned what the new owners were prepared to pay.

Marcus

Anton Marcus is back at Durbanville on Saturday when he has four Ridgemont rides – Flame Tree, Yorktown and Private General for Brett Crawford and Still Tappin for Sands. His only other mount is Savea on whom he won at Kenilworth ten days ago for his old boss Paddy Kruyer.

By Michael Clower

Johan Janse van Vuuren has two of the most exciting fillies in the country in True To Life and Lady Of Steel and they will both be nominated for the same race, the Grade 3 Umzimkhulu Stakes over 1400m at Greyville on April 5, an event which is often used as a springboard to the Grade 2 Daisy Fillies Guineas on the first night of the SA Champions Season.

Both fillies won good races over the weekend.

Lady Of Steel is unbeaten in four starts from 1200m to 1600m and looks full of class.

On Saturday she finished as strongly as usual to win the Grade 3 Acacia Handicap over 1600m at Turffontein Standside by 2,25 lengths under Chase Maujean.

She ran off a merit rating of 98 and carried only 52,5kg but she did have to overcome a tough draw of 13.

She will continue to be trained out of Turffontein and her participation in the Umzimkhulu might depend on the draw she lands.

Janse van Vuuren is also considering a tilt at the Grade 1 HSH Prince Charlene Empress Club Stakes over 1600m at Turffontein on April 18.

True To Life has exceptional natural speed and she displayed this again on Sunday when easily winning a 1400m Pinnacle Stakes event on the Greyville turf.

She sat in second behind a slow pace and had soon quickened away from them and beat some useful KZN-based females, including Grade 1 winner Camphoratus, by 3,50 lengths without coming off the bit.

True To Life’s only defeat in five races over sprint distances was in the SA Fillies Nursery when a four length third to the outstanding Basadi Faith.

However, she has failed in both of her attempts at a mile, although both were at Grade 1 level.

Therefore, Janse van Vuuren will run her in the Umzimkhulu and decide from there whether she has another attempt at a mile in a race like the Grade 2 Daisy Fillies Guineas or whether she comes back down in trip for races like the Grade 1 SA Fillies Sprint.

True To Life was bred by the outstanding breeder Robin Bruss and is looking to have a bit in common with the Bruss-bred Equus Champion Sprinter Will Pays, who defied his breeding as his sire Imperial Stride won a Group 2 over a-mile-and-two-furlongs and a Group 3 over a mile-and-a-half and his dam Rattlebag won a Grade 3 over a mile and finished third in the Grade 2 Natal Oaks over 2400m.

Bruss always breeds a horse with the Vodacom Durban July and the Sun Met in mind. He said thus there had to be a combination of stamina and speed, with the latter required in order for the horse to have the necessary acceleration.

He added, “But in thoroughbred breeding, being what it is, you can end up with the opposite to what you intended.”

True To Life’s sire Duke Of Marmalade was a European champion, whose five consecutive Group 1 wins as a four-year-old were from a-mile-and-two-furlongs to a-mile-and-a-half.

Her dam Mina Salaam won a Zimbabwean Grade 3 over 2000m and a Listed race in South Africa over a mile and she has plenty of stamina in her pedigree.

Bruss believes there are two reasons why True To Life is doing so well over shorter trips.

Firstly, Duke Of Marmalade is by Danehill, whose only Group 1 win was over six furlongs and as one of the all-time great thoroughbred stallions he became a particularly exceptional speed influence.

Bruss knows True To Life well as he bought her back at the sales when not realising a good enough price and owned her for her first couple of runs before she was bought out of the Roy Magner yard by Janse van Vuuren’s chief owner Laurence Wernars.

He reckoned the second reason for her doing well over shorter trips to date is she weighs in at 550kg and as with humans it is difficult to carry heavy muscle over long trips.

However, he said with age she might indeed be able to stay the mile.

Sunday’s run was encouraging from that point of view as she had failed in her only previous attempt at that 1400m course and distance in the Grade 2 Golden Slipper.

Whichever route these two fillies go they should make headlines in the SA Champions Season as they both possess true class.

By David Thiselton

One World, one of only two entire horses to win the Sun Met in the last 16 years, is to stand alongside the other one (Futura) at Drakenstein Stud. He will not race again.

No stud fee has yet been announced but John Freeman reports that the syndication is almost complete. The four-year-old, winner of ten of his 14 starts, is one of the last top sons of Captain Al trained by Vaughan Marshall who won the Cape Guineas with the subsequent champion sire in 2000 and with his sons William Longsword and Tap O’Noth.

One World, bred by Klawervlei and bought for R425 000 at the 2017 Cape Premier Yearling Sale, won over R5.6 million for owners Etienne Braun, Braam van Huyssteen, Ken and Jane Truter. His Met time was the fastest since Pocket Power won the great race for the first time in 2007.

He has the pedigree to make it as a stallion. His dam is by the Aidan O’Brien-trained Storm Cat European Horse of the Year Giant’s Causeway (known as The Iron Horse for his tough constitution and battling qualities) while One World’s grandam was placed in the Prix Vermeille and is a full sister to a French Oaks winner.

By Michael Clower

Horses are generally understood to be able to cope with extreme heat provided there is a breeze. The problem at Durbanville on Saturday was that there was hardly a breath of air to alleviate the sweltering temperatures.

“We were concerned,” admitted senior stipe Ernie Rodrigues. “We decided we had to put the welfare of the horses first and so we had a meeting with the trainers and the vets (John Batt and Kate Meiring) before racing.”

The upshot was that horses were taken straight off to be hosed down when they returned to unsaddle – they didn’t have to wait to be inspected first – and extra pipes were laid on. Batt led by example, hosing down horses himself.

Justin Snaith was among those impressed – “We thought it could be bad today and we were worried but priority was given to the horses’ wellbeing.”

Some idea of the temperature can be gauged from the fact that at 4.00pm, when the heat should have abated, it was still 35 in the shade. By that stage punters were also hot under the collar – all eight favourites were beaten.

But it was an appropriate day for Meraki to strut his stuff because few horses have survived as much hardship as he has. “We bought him in Australia and he got travel sickness going from the sales to Blue Gum Farm,” related part-owner James Drew. “He then got laminitis and he got it again here. The other horses we’ve had with laminitis haven’t survived.”

The five-year-old was one of four winners to set new class records and his 1 min 22.38 sec in the Tabonline Handicap was only a tenth of a second outside the 1 400m course record set by One World in the Matchem last October. What is more he did it without Greg Cheyne even picking up his stick. “I didn’t need to and I didn’t pick it up last time I rode him either. He gives you all he’s got.”

Cheyne was also on the mark on the Hassen Adams hat-trick achieving Freedom Seeker in the TAB Telebet Handicap and, as Paddy Kruyer pointed out, Adams is part-owner of Got The Greenlight who won the SA Classic 20 minutes earlier.

Glen Kotzen’s instructions to Sandile Mbheli in the last were to ride Silver Tiara just as he had ridden Mercurana in the Kenilworth Cup. Fortunately he did not follow them with quite the same death-defying verve but he got both the message and the filly up to lead 50m out.

Mbhele was also on the mark in the first, making every metre on Blue Gangsta for Meraki’s trainer Candice Bass-Robinson who completed a treble with the well-backed Holy Warrior (Liam Tarentaal) in the 2 000m handicap.

First time blinkers appeared to transform Dark Mistress who comfortably landed the Racing Association Maiden under Anthony Andrews but Kotzen felt the weaker opposition played at least as big a part.

He said: “She is beautifully bred and cost a lot of money (R600 000) but her work has been a hell of a lot better than her form and I thought she would have won two races back.”

Greg Ennion paid tribute to his assistant Roderick Fredericks after On Captain’s Side led over a furlong out under Louis Mxothwa in the 1 250m handicap. “She is a nice filly but she is a bit of a head case and as mad as a hatter – and Roderick has worked all hours with her.”

Finally Snaith revealed what could be one of the secrets of his training skills after Peaceful Day answered Richard Fourie’s repeated calls to hold off Doppio Oro in the Betting World Handicap. “He has been a little bit disappointing – I thought he might have done something in one of the features,” said the former champion trainer. “But when they are disappointing like that I freshen them up and bring them back in distance.”

By Michael Clower

Blackball had plenty in his favour in the Intelligent Solutions Pinnacle Stakes at Hollywoodbets Greyville yesterday and he scored a bloodless victory, the eighth of his career, in spite of having to endure the tribulations of a false start.

Given that the field was almost a carbon copy of the recent UmThombothi Handicap at Hollywoodbets Scottsville and this being a set weights race, Blackball looked very much the live wire and Gavin van Zyl’s soldier did it in style.

Warren Kennedy, fresh from a successful ride on Summer Pudding in the Wilgerbosdrift SA Oaks on Saturday and over a nasty bout of flu, rode the race as if he knew the result. Sitting off the pace, Kennedy threaded Blackball through a gap in the middle of the pack and drove past Silver Rose to win comfortably.

“The false start didn’t worry him,” said Kennedy. “He’s a placid horse but I think it upset our other runner. Marchingtontogether is a bit highly strung.”

“He’s really found his best form,” according to Gavin van Zyl who has a few racing during the season in mind.

True To Life, a touch disappointing in the Cape Fillies Guineas back in December where she finished mid-field behind Missisippi Burning, put the record straight with an easy win in the Conditions Plate.

Tracking the pace for much of the early exchanges, Calvin Habib released the handbrake at the top of the straight and she strode to a commanding victory with Camphoratus chasing in vain and still some four lengths adrift at the line.

With South Africa’s Champion Season on the horizon, the Gr 2 KZN Fillies Guineas and the Gr1 Woolavington 2000 must be on the cards for Johan Janse van Vuuren’s filly although assistant Pat Lunn feels that 1 400m is her game.

Time will tell!

Walls Of Dubrovnik, a son of first season sire Fencing Master, record his second straight win in the card opener. Mike Miller has not been afraid to send his juveniles early and Walls Of Dubrovnik was having his third start in a little more than two months but was delighted to see his charge win well. “I thought he was a bit out of his ground, but he just ate up the ground. He seems to be really a nice horse.” Eric Ngwane, who has been a little quiet since returning from a spell in Mauritius, scoring his first win back on the colt and hopefully this second win will see him get some better opportunities. He rode a confident race and the colt responded. “He jumped a little slow but he was comfortable where he was. I knew I had the race at the top of the straight. I didn’t panic and when I squeezed him, he took off.”

Drier

Dennis Drier is back on his shooting stick at Summerveld after an extended stay in the Western Cape and Master Of Destiny gave him a welcoming return. Master Of Destiny had let the side down on a couple of occasions but the addition of cheek piece to yesterday’s bridle did wonders.

Always up with the pace, Sean Veale sent him about his business at the top of the straight and at first he appeared to be struggling to shed his challengers. However, they soon began treading water and Master Of Destiny strode away to win as he liked with the long-time maiden Master George in vain pursuit.

By Andrew Harrison