The Alec Laird-trained Bezanova is the defending champion in the KZN Breeders Million Mile, which is to be run at Greyville on Sunday, and will have a big chance if at his best.

However, the Alec Laird yard are more hopeful than bullish.

The Million Mile has always been an intriguing race due to the weight conditions, which go on number of wins plus Graded penalties.

Bezanova is treated the same as last year, because 2kg must be added for his win of last year’s event, but on the other hand his Gr 2 penalty falls away as his Charity Mile victory happened more than 18 months ago. However, the weights had to be dragged up to 60kg last year, and he carried 59kg, whereas this year he is only carrying 58kg. He was reported not striding out when running way below par in the Gr 1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge two weekends ago, a race he had finished a 0,9 length third in last year.

Laird said, “It is hard to explain the run, he took hold of the bit, then had to be eased and from then on took no interest. He has not been at his best, but he looks good, everything is fine and he has been working well, so we will see. But it will be hard to beat Rabada.”

A big plus for Bezanova is Weichong Marwing up and he also has a plum draw of two.

Rabada is the highest rated horse in the field, the distance is ideal and he has a fair draw of five with Anton Marcus up.

However, he is not the best weighted horse and is in fact officially 3,5kg under sufferance with the Sean Tarry-trained filly Intergalactic and 2,5kg under sufferance with the Tarry-trained Malak El Moolook.

On the other hand Rabada could be better than his 106 merit rating suggests, especially when considering his last two runs. Things did not go ideally for him when pipped in the Gr 2 Canon Guineas by the ruling Vodacom Durban July favourite Black Arthur, while Anton Marcus dropped the whip just after turning for home in the Gr 1 Daily News 2000 and Rabada still managed to win.

Intergalactic has seemed to get going too late in her last three runs which have been from 1600m to 2000m. However, this will be her third run at Greyville and she is drawn in pole, so has a chance with her weight advantage, although it has to be said J&B Met winning jockey JP van der Merwe is not in the mint of form at present.

The Tarry stable elect is not necessarily Malak El Moolook, who has stable first choice jockey S’Manga Khumalo up, because Khumalo would not be able to make the 50kg weight of Intergalactic. Malak El Moolook is distance suited, having run his best races in the Gr 2 Gauteng Guineas and Gr 2 Canon Guineas, while his three runs over 1800m have all been disappointing. He was doing his best work late in the Canon Guineas when just 2,05 lengths behind Black Arthur and is now better drawn. He is 7kg better off with Rabada for a 1,55 length beating in the Canon Guineas, so could be the one to beat.

No Worries is the best weighted older horse and won this race two years ago. He is officially 3kg under sufferance with Intergalactic. However, he has lost some of his speed and appears to be better over further these days.

Way Of Light is the topweight and is 6,5kg under sufferance with Intergalactic. However, he is a talented sort with a fine turn of foot and, if he can be settled quicker than he was last time out in the Cup Trial, his finishing effort could make him a threat.

Just Like Magic beat July runner Ten Gun Salute over this trip at Scottsville in a maiden last October, but is 10,5kg under sufferance with Intergalactic.

Roy’s Winter Patch and Son Of Silver have some talent but are officially the worst and second worst weighted runners in the field.

Humidor has a lot of speed, so there is a stamina doubt, and he is officially 10,5kg under sufferance with Intergalactic.

The second best weighted runners have won the last two renewals of this race and the trend could continue as Malak El Moolook looks the one to side with and he could be followed home by Rabada, with Intergalactic, Way Of Light and Bezanova next best.

By David Thiselton

Most French Navy fans would have been thrilled to see the strapping Sean Tarry-trained horse land a seemingly plum draw of four for the Vodacom Durban July, but jockey Weichong Marwing had in fact been hoping for a wide draw.

A wider draw would have given Marwing more options.

He explained in a slow paced race it was sometimes easier to find a position from a wide draw. A lot of the wider drawn horses will be attempting to get to the front down the back straight and should be able to achieve this in a slow paced race. Once they are ahead they are able to move inward towards the rail. They can then relax and wait for the next wave of wider drawn horses to come around them. Thereby, in a slow paced race, a widely drawn horse could possibly find itself in a handy position with cover.

Meanwhile, with each horse which has come around the field to the front, the well drawn horses will have been shuffled backwards. Of course the well drawn horses can prevent all of this from happening by holding their positions. However, they would need to use up energy to keep the wider horses out, and this is especially the case at Greyville because the back straight is uphill.

French Navy’s problem is his relative lack of gate speed. From a low draw it looks likely he has little option but to sit at the back early and hope for a fast pace. However, from a wide draw Marwing would have been able to drop him out if adjudging the pace to be quick, or send him up there if adjudging it to be slow. As the great jockey Michael “Muis” Roberts once said, the first fifty metres of a race are in fact the most important.

Marwing was philosophical. He said the draw was a factor which could not be changed and he would simply have to re-plan his strategy.

In the two renewals of the July to date which have been run on the narrower track, the horse drawn in barrier six crossed the line first, i.e. Wylie Hall and Power King respectively. Draw six this year belongs to the Tarry-trained Samurai Blade.

However, Legislate was awarded the race in the boardroom two years ago at the expense of Wylie Hall and he jumped from draw eleven. If the reserve runners come out, the horse drawn eleven this year will be Rabada. The latter is engaged to run in the KZN Million Mile this Sunday.

The last horse to take in both the Million Mile and the July was Love Struck in 2013 and he finished downfield in both races.

Rabada’s trainer Mike Azzie was forthright and said he believed this horse had had an outstanding July preparation, provided he did not run in the Million Mile on Sunday. However, the decision to run him on Sunday is out of his hands.

By David Thiselton

The final pieces of the Vodacom Durban July jigsaw have been put together as Anton Marcus has been declared to ride the Joey Ramsden-trained St. Tropez, Piere Strydom has been declared to ride the Ramsden-trained The Conglomerate, MJ Byleveld has been declared to ride the Mike Azzie-trained Rabada, Andrew Fortune has been declared to ride the Sean Tarry-trained Samurai Blade, S’Manga Khumalo has been declared to ride the first reserve, the Tarry-trained Trophy Wife, and Craig Zackey has been declared to ride the Duncan Howells-trained Saratoga Dancer.

David Thiselton

 

Marinaresco’s 19 draw was greeted with disappointment bordering on disgust by the horse’s connections at Kenilworth yesterday.

“That’s the worst draw I could have,” said rider Grant van Niekerk while Candice Robinson greeted questions with a blunt “Don’t even ask me,” before adding: “We had bad luck – we didn’t even get a chance to choose a number. Marinaresco has to be dropped in – that’s the way he is ridden – so we are going to have to hope that there is a good pace.”

It was also a bitter disappointment for all those punters who have backed the three-year-old to give Mike Bass success with his last hurrah, making him the gamble of the race so far. Bookmakers, doubtless breathing a sigh of relief, promptly marked him out from 6-1 to as much as 15-2.

Bernard Fayd’Herbe, who won from pen three on Pocket Power eight years ago, was totally unimpressed with Mac De Lago’s 16, saying: “That’s very bad.”

Surprisingly, though, Richard Fourie expressed himself delighted with his number 14 stall for It’s My Turn. It could be significant that Legislate started from only three places inside that when Fourie won on him two years ago.

He said: “That’s a beautiful draw and a good one for this particular horse. Most of those drawn low are speed horses and they are going to cut each other’s throats. I am happy that I am out of trouble, I know my horse stays and now I’m just hoping for a fair run through the race.”

By Michael Clower

The Vodacom Durban July has never lost its magic and former leading lightweight rider and now South African Jockeys Academy riding master Paddy Wynne is one who can vouch for that.

Wynne won the July on the Gail Thompson-trained Jamaican Rumba in 1982 and is still stunned by the instant celebrity status he receives upon non-racing people learning he has won the big one.

When conversation turns to Wynne’s former profession, the ignorant are usually too polite to ask direct questions, but he said, “Somebody would then walk past and say ‘no but he won the July’ and they just can’t believe it. They ask how it felt and normally have a memory of the July I won such as their mother backing the winner because he was grey etc. The reaction wherever you go is just something else.”

Wynne also spoke of the weeks of physical, mental and tactical preparation which goes into the race and of how in the end the result almost seems pre-ordained.

Wynne started grabbing attention as a lightweight rider in the late 1970’s when given a chance by the great trainer Herman Brown Senior. Brown gave him his first July ride in 1979 on Bold Monarch, who had finished runner up two years earlier. Bold Monarch finished unplaced and Wynne had to wait three years for his next July ride.

He recalled a prerequisite for the Jamaican Rumba ride was the promise to make a full commitment six weeks before the race. The first jockey approached was in fact the great Michael “Muis” Roberts, but Roberts had many options at that stage and couldn’t commit.

Wynne was prepared to commit and immediately began a strict diet, as Jamaican Rumba was set to come in with a featherweight.

He rode the horse every single day in work until the race.  Wynne said, “He just got stronger and stronger and I remember sharing this with newspaper man Jack Ramsay and he ended up tipping him.”

Jockey Billy Harvey knew Jamaican Rumba well, having won the Dick King Stakes on him as a three-year-old (today known as the Daily News 2000).

Jamaican Rumba was still a colt and had “a mind of his own”. Harvey told Wynne the grey would not be caught if turning for home in front, but if he was taken on in the running he would “throw it in.”

Wynne planned his pace-making strategy from a long way out. However, his biggest concern was a Johannesburg horse called St Tropez, a known front-runner.

He recalled the moment he heard the announcement of St Tropez’s scratching. The horse had apparently stood on something upon walking off the float on July day.

“I was sitting in the jockeys room and I couldn’t believe it. Now I didn’t have to worry about him. It was as if it was just meant to be. I had also won the first race of the day on an Alistair Gordon-trained horse, so my confidence was now up too. I weighed 46,5kg stripped down that day, but felt strong as I had dieted properly.”

Wynne took Jamaican Rumba, who carried 48kg, straight to the front from a draw of eleven in the 16 horse field and his carefully calculated plan unravelled perfectly. However, there was a lot more to it than he would admit, and this can be confirmed by current Summerveld trainer Frank Robinson.

Robinson was a schoolboy at the time and working for the Thompson yard was his first job in racing. He said, “Paddy’s biggest asset was his judgement of pace. He was also a very loyal jockey and a fine judge of a horse on the training tracks, he knew when a horse was ready.”

Wynne slowed the pace up and recalled Felix Coetzee among others screaming at him to get on with it. Wynne said, “The more they shouted the more I slowed it up.”

He is still mystified about why nobody took him on. He said, “Felix was boxed in so couldn’t get out but the others probably thought I was on a no hoper who would come back to them. But they should have realised the slow fractions. I recall even watching people walking on the sidewalk at the 1000m mark, that was how slow I was going.”

Wynne continued, “There is a particular spot at Greyville, between the 500m and 450m mark, and if you can go from there on a horse who still has plenty left they won’t catch you.”

Jamaican Rumba duly kept on finding and despite the nearest challenger Sweet Wonder famously attempting to bite him he crossed the line half-a-length clear.

Robinson recalled Thompson being a shrewd trainer, one who would lay a horse off for months with a target in mind and such had been the case with Jamaican Rumba, whose unplaced runs in both the Republic Day Handicap (today’s Betting World 1900) and Clairwood Champions Stakes (today’s Rising Sun Gold Challenge) in the build up ensured his feather weight. He also recalled Jamaican Rumba being owned by bookmaker Harold McLean Robertson, who would arrive at the yard for regular meetings to discuss the July. Robinson learnt at these meetings they were pouring money on the horse. However, the victory still came as a surprise to him and he recalled it to be a “surreal” moment.

The infamous “dream lady” supposedly made her first public appearance the following week. This mystery lady had apparently been tipping the July winner year after year based on her dreams and the story, fact or fiction, reached its zenith when an old lady was apparently sighted walking into a Tattersalls with a suitcase in order to collect her Jamaican Rumba July winnings.

Today sees the announcing of the final field and draws for the 2016 July at a ceremony at Greyville, which is to be televised live on Tellytrack at 20h15.

Wynne’s recollections tell the story of just how long the road is to July victory, so the strong reactions to barrier position draws today should be quite understandable.

David Thiselton
Picture: julyhandicap.info