Justin Snaith’s horses have all pulled up well from Vodacom Durban July day and he said the unbeaten Gr 2 Durban Golden Horseshoe winner Zodiac Ruler would be considered for the Gr 1 Premier’s Champions Challenge on eLan Gold Cup day.

He also spoke of his empathy for distraught owner Adriaan van Vuuren, having been in the same boat before, while at the same time coming out in defence of Gold Circle and KZN racetracks.

Snaith said the only reason Zodiac Ruler had ended up being at his Summerveld SA Champions Season yard was because the colt had been at his satellite yard in Johannesburg at the time of the latter’s closure. The two-year-old had not been allowed to return to Cape Town without going through quarantine. Snaith said his Johannesburg satellite yard had been closed because it had not been financially viable. He added it had only been opened in the first place because he had been led to believe restricted races would be included in the National Trainer’s Championships, but the NHRA had later changed their minds.

Snaith said about the classy Zodiac Ruler, “I had never thought much of him, because we don’t push our babies. We have done very little with him.”

On debut over 1400m on the Greyville poly Zodiac Ruler was allowed to go off at odds of 14/1. Yet, despite losing four lengths at the start, he had still managed to get up to win under apprentice Lyle Hewitson.

 

On Saturday, just two-and-a-half weeks after that debut and now ridden by Richard Fourie, he was slow away by two lengths in the 1400m turf contest and was green early on the turn before settling beautifully on the rail behind a fast pace. Class usually comes through in a true run race and so it proved. He was last at the 400m mark, but then moved through effortlessly to put himself in contention. He responded well to the whip from the 250m mark and won with what looked to be plenty in hand by 1,5 lengths, converting odds of 8/1. The time of 82,23 seconds was only just outside the class record.

Zoidac Ruler is one of a number of successful horses Paul Lafferty has bought in Australia during his time as South African ambassador to the Magic Millions Sales company. The Summerveld trainer  said he had always believed Zodiac Ruler’s sire Zoffany would make it. He was proven correct immediately as the son of Dansili was the European Champion first crop sire in Europe in 2015. Zoffany won a Gr 1 over six furlongs in Ireland, but his biggest claim to fame was finishing just three-quarters of a length runner-up to the mighty Frankel in the Gr 1 St. James Palace Stakes over a mile at Royal Ascot.

Prolific owner Fred Crabbia spotted Zodiac Ruler on Lafferty’s website, liked the look of both him and the pedigree and duly bought him. He was spelled by Jane Thomas at Far End Pre-training in Mooi River and she described him as being “magic”. Crabbia then put him through the CTS Lanzerac Ready To Run Sale and had to go to R450,000 to buy him back, despite Thomas having not gone anything other than slowly with him either at home or at the Ready To Run breeze ups due to him still being too “big and dum”.

Snaith continued, “The Greyville track doesn’t look good, but all of our horses have pulled up well. Our horses have in fact had more injuries in other centres than in KZN this season and I have the statistics to prove it.”

He added, “It is not easy these days and I think Graeme Hawkins and Gill Simpkins and others at Gold Circle did a fine job in making the July a success and the Tote turnovers were up.”

Snaith said the field and draw for the Premier’s Champions Challenge would be “looked at”, before a decision to run Zodiac Ruler was made.

He said of his July runners, “The main thing is they all came back safely.”

He had few excuses, but said Black Arthur had unfortunately been carried outward at the top of the straight and had thus ended up on the outside rail, where they had not wanted him to be. The colt had then been conscious of the crowd, so was reluctant to take the gap. Jockey Douglas Whyte believed he could have otherwise possibly finished third.

Richard Fourie lamented not being able to have a horse to offer cover for his mount It’s My Turn, who had to jump from a tricky draw of 12. He said his reasons were more due to “peace of mind” than anything else as the horse had settled nicely throughout. It’s My Turn sat in third on the quarters of Ten Gun Salute. Fourie pointed out the winner had sat behind him, so he believed he had been in the right place. The Crabbia-owned horse stayed on well for fourth. Fourie concluded by saying the Dynasty colt might have even won had he been “more forward (mature).”

Anthony Delpech said yesterday Bela-Bela had lost her position when bumped around early and felt she might otherwise have finished in the top four.

Snaith said none of his July runners were likely to appear again this season.

Snaith said about Triple Crown-winning owner Adriaan van Vuuren’s shock statement he would be pulling out of horseracing, “He is talking from his heart, he loves his horses and I know what it is like to have a horse injured, we had to endure this anxiety with Legislate two years ago. He (Van Vuuren) doesn’t deserve to be taken to pieces like this in the media and it is due to people like him that so many are able to be employed in the industry.”

David Thiselton

Dean Kannemeyer will move most of his big guns from Summerveld to Cape Town in September despite his Durban team doing so well there in the past year.

He is the leading trainer at Greyville this season and he went into yesterday’s Scottsville meeting second only to Duncan Howells in the KZN log but he is adamant that his emphasis will be just as strong in Cape Town.

He said: “Having a dual operation has been my business plan for quite some time but Cape Town will always be my base and the better horses will come back there in September. They will stay for the Cape season.

“I am going to continue moving horses up and down between Cape Town and Durban. I have two top class assistants in David Lilley at Milnerton and Barbara Badenhorst in Summerveld while I will fly between the two centres.”

Michael Clower

Harry’s Son is on the move again and he has the Prix de la Foret at Longchamp on the day of the Arc de Triomphe as his ultimate objective.

Paul Lafferty said: “He has been in Spain at Laredo near Bilbao. He jarred himself on his last run in Dubai and my French mates recommended  Laredo as that is where they send their horses to recuperate. It’s on the coast so he is able to go into the sea each day.

“He will run in France at the end of the month and his season could culminate in the big seven furlong race on Arc day.”

The Australian-bred, winner of the Premiers Champion and the Gauteng Guineas, was second to Act Of War in the Cape Guineas and ran four times in Dubai. He was placed in a Group 1 and twice in Group 2s before suffering the jarring in the Dubai Turf on World Cup night.

Michael Clower

The Gareth van Zyl-trained Redcarpet Captain displayed the benefit of gelding at the Vodacom Durban July meeting on Saturday, as well as a drop in trip, when bursting through to win the eleventh race on the card, the Non-Black Type tabGold Sprint over 1200m on the poly under stable jockey Warren Kennedy from a tricky draw of seven.

The Captain Al gelding had drifted out from 8/1 to 33/1.

As a two-year-old he won the Gr 3 Englezakis Protea Stakes over 1100m and then finished second in the Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Gold Medallion over 1200m at Scottsville.

This season he has been tried over as far 2000m. The Gr 1 Daily News 2000 was his last run before Saturday’s race.

Van Zyl had brought the Brian Burnard-owned No Worries down from a staying trip to win the Million Mile a week before the July and managed the feat again on Saturday with Redcarpet Captain, who is also owned by Burnard and was bred by Klawervlei Stud.

Van Zyl said about Redcarpet Captain, “We are excited about him again.”

He believed the athletic bay’s future “definitely” lay in sprinting.

David Thiselton

Glen Kotzen experienced the highs and lows of racing at the Vodacom Durban July meeting on Saturday when first winning the Gr 2 Gold Circle Golden Slipper with Final Judgement, but later seeing his fancied Shizam scratched from the KZN Yearling Sale Million.

A plan came together in the Golden Slipper after Kotzen and jockey Stuart Randolph had analysed the previous run of the Varsfontein-bred Judpot filly Final Judgement.

In the Listed Devon Air Stakes, over the same Greyville turf 1400m course and distance, she had been cramped for galloping room behind a slow pace, so was unable to use her big action. Late in the race, after a challenger had edged ahead of her, she took off and came back to beat the latter for third place.

Kotzen and Randolph thus planned to go to the front from pole position on Saturday, where she would be able to use her action and it would also put the ball in the court of the other jockeys to use up energy and go around her if they wanted to overcome their wider draws.

She bounced out into the front and strode out nicely on the rail, while two of the dangers, Visuality and Al Hawraa, were trapped wide and burnt up some valuable energy. The eventual third-placed Sail, who looks full of promise, initially used up some energy before being reined in.

However, Final Judgement’s tactics did appear to have played into the hands of the hot odds-on favourite Maleficent, who had been drawn in barrier two. The latter was able to park in behind her on the rail.

However, the second reason for Kotzen and Randolph’s plan proved spot on. After using that big stride to keep Maleficent at bay, Final Judgement was challenged by Dawn Calling late in the race. However, just as the latter put her nose in front, Final Judgement once again picked up a gear and surged to get up by a neck.

Maleficent did not find the kick she had displayed in the Devon Air Stakes and perhaps ran below par.

Kotzen said about Final Judgement, “The further for her the better. We avoided the Allan Robertson, because we knew she would be better suited to the bend.”

However, the connections are in no rush to run her in the Gr 1 Thekwini on eLan Gold Cup day, as they believe she has a fine three-year-old career ahead of her, and will see how the field and the draws look before committing. Dawn Calling and Sail will likely enjoy the 1600m of the Thekwini too.

Final Judgement is owned by Peter De Beyer and Hugo Hattingh’s Triple H Trust.  At last year’s Bloodstock South Africa Val de Vie Sale, Hattingh had arrived with the resolve of not buying any fillies. However, Kotzen asked him to have a look at just one of them, Final Judgement, whom he believed to be the pick of the Sale. It did not take Hattingh long to agree.

Peter de Beyer later arrived and liked the pedigree. She is out of the Gr 1 Garden Province Stakes-winning Proclaim mare Final Claim, who is a daughter of the 1996 ARCSA Champion Broodmare Ollies Last (Highborn Harry), who also produced Gr 1 Cape Guineas-winner Alpha Omega as well as Gr 3-winner Over Bearing. Hattingh and De Beyer  landed Final Judgement for R500,000, which now looks a bargain.

Kotzen said, “I was very pleased for Hugo on Saturday as he has put his money down to buy some well bred horses and it was lovely to see him rewarded. Being out of a Gr 1-winning mare she is now worth bombs.”

Kotzen was also pleased for Peter de Beyer, although the latter is no stranger to success and judging by his record looks to be one of the most intuitive buyers in the country.

A dampener was later put on Kotzen’s day. Apparently noise from revellers unnerved his strongly fancied Kahal filly Shizam as she was leaving the parade ring for the KZN Yearling Million and her left hind leg became caught over the wooden railing, which is on the left hand side of the chute entrance. She had blood on the leg and was scratched down at the start. The injuries have proved to be superficial. However, the incident was costly to the owners, who could have recouped plenty of costs and more.

Gold Circle will be looking into the structure of the parade ring at the entrance to the chute to see whether any changes could lessen the chances of a repeat of such an incident. The KZN Million was moved this year from the last race on the day to the ninth, due to it being dark by the 12^th and the crowd by that stage being rowdy. There might now be renewed requests to bring it forward even further.

David Thiselton