The seven-year-old New Zealand-bred gelding, Double Reef, who ran
out a comfortable winner of Saturday’s R200 000, Grade 2 SABC Sport
Gold Vase over 3 000 metres at Greyville, is among the 24 entries
for the R500 000, Grade 1 Canon Gold Cup to be run over 3 200 metres
at Greyville Racecourse on Saturday, August 7.
The meeting will bring the curtain down on the KwaZulu-Natal Winter
Racing Season and has traditionally been one of the most important
races on the South African racing calendar.
There are some outstanding stayers in the field including The Eiger
Sanction and Theatre Of Dreams, first and third respectively in
the Gold Bowl at Turffontein who, like so many other fancied horses
at the Vodacom Durban July meeting last Saturday, failed to put
their best feet forward.
From Port Elizabeth the former Canon Gold Cup winner, Cereus, is
back to have another try at lifting the laurels while Red Badge
and Superwood, who ran outstanding races to finish second and third
in the country’s premier event on Saturday, will try to do just
that little bit better and pick up the winner’s cheque here.
Also among the entries is Mark Dixon’s four-year-old gelding, Modern
Quest, who ran second to Double Reef on Saturday.
As back-up to Double Reef from the Mike de Kock yard is the Badger
Land gelding, Wolf Whistle, who ran fourth in the Canon Gold Cup
last year and was withdrawn from the Vodacom Durban July on the
morning of the race having failed to recover fully from a hoof injury.