THINGS ARE HOTTING UP
The tempo of Champions Season 2007 has been heating
up as it moves towards Vodacom Durban July Day on
July 7 and will get even hotter at Clairwood
Racecourse in Durban on Saturday, 9 June 2007, with
the running of the R600 000, Grade 1 Gold Challenge.
We
have had the country’s top sprinters in action at
Scottsville, the three-year-olds doing battle at
Greyville and now it’s time for the milers to make
their mark at Clairwood.
Fifteen top runners, including the cream of South
Africa’s large thoroughbred population, will go to
the start on Saturday for the 1 600m clash under
weight-for-age conditions - and what a race this is
going to be.
This is the final leg of the South African Golden
Mile competition in the South African All Stars
Series, but for some of the runners it will be all
or nothing in their bid to make it into the field
for Africa’s Greatest Horseracing Event on the first
Saturday in July.
The results of last Saturday’s two Grade 1 races at
Greyville, the Daily News 2200 and the Woolavington
2200, has put a new perspective on the Vodacom
Durban July Log with Sean Tarry’s Buy And Sell and
Mike Bass’s Sun Classique winning their respective
races and now seriously challenging for a big race
spot.
This will place enormous pressure on at least two
Gold Challenge runners, Alec Laird’s Malteme and
Bass’s Hilgrove. They currently occupy the 18th
and 19th place respectively among the top
20 on the log and for them a good result is crucial.
For the astute form-studiers this is a very
important race in which to assess the well-being of
runners like last year’s Vodacom Durban July winner,
Eyeofthetiger, and the J&B Met winner, Pocket Power.
Dean Kannemeyer’s Brazilian import has failed to
live up to the talent he displayed in winning last
year’s Vodacom Durban July and tomorrow’s race will
show how he has come on since his disappointing
showing in the Gommagomma Challenge.
Pocket Power has not run since winning the J&B Met
and was withdrawn from the Drill Hall Stakes at the
start in what was to be his first local appearance
causing considerable concern among his supporters.
However, the two conditioners are among the best in
the country and when Pocket Power and Eyeofthetiger
go to post tomorrow one can expect them to be in top
racing condition.
On
ability and merit ratings they should have been the
two to fight it out under the handicapping
conditions, but at Scottsville two weeks ago, along
came Jones - as the song goes - but in the form of
Mike de Kock’s Kildonan. With one devastating,
course record-breaking run in the Golden Horse
Casino Sprint, where he beat the mighty Mythical
Flight, Kildonan bolted to a merit rating of 115 to
top of the country’s merit rating log.
The Rich Man’s Gold colt was having his first race
since last year and, as he is bred to go a lot
further than that 1 200m trip, he showed his
greatness as a thoroughbred and will be favourite to
win tomorrow.
This is a power-packed field and includes the very
in-form Jagged Ice, stable companion to
Eyeofthetiger who won the Green Point Stakes and
Basil Marcus’s multiple Cape feature race winner Jay
Peg.
REPUTATIONS ARE AT STAKE
Fourteen fillies and mares, some with huge
reputations, will bare their claws in battle over 1
450m at Clairwood tomorrow when they contest the
R200 000, Grade 2 Tibouchina Stakes, a
weight-for-age event for the so-called weaker sex.
But there is nothing weak about this gaggle of
gorgeous gals and with no quarter being asked, even
less will be given. It will be the young girls
against the ladies - and a couple of more matronly
individuals - and in this case there will be no
respect for age either way.
Heading the younger contingent is Buddy Maroun’s
three-year-old Caesour filly, Dane Julia. She is the
highest rated runner in the race and has tasted
defeat only once in eight starts with her trophy
cabinet including those for the Gauteng Fillies
Guineas and the SA Fillies Classic.
But there is no way she can rest on her laurels, for
among her peers are Mike de Kock’s Jet Master filly
Little Miss Magic who won the Empress Club Stakes
with ease and Geoff Woodruff’s Royal Fantasy who was
just two lengths behind her in the Gauteng Fillies
Guineas and was just beaten a whisker by Sally
Bowles in the KwaZulu-Natal Fillies Guineas.
The older runners, and there are a few with reason
to feel full of themselves, will be out to put the
youngsters in their places as well.
THE CUP IS CRUCIAL
Like the Gold Challenge, the main event on
Saturday’s Clairwood racecard, the R125 000, Grade 3
Cup Trial over 1 800m will be crucial for 10 of the
17 runners that take to the track.
For them it will be the very last opportunity to
become eligible for an invitation to run in the
Vodacom Durban July early next month.
Tyron Zackey’s Singing Sword is currently in 16th
position on the July Log but could still be a border
line case depending on how he runs on Saturday.
Five of the other nine are currently just on the
outside looking in on the July Log, just missing the
20-horse cut-off, and a good showing tomorrow could
influence the decision of the selection panel in
their favour.
The five are African Appeal, Equal Image, Pinero,
Fork Lightening and the filly Veiled Essence.
With an even bigger task and not yet featuring in
the top 30 on the Log are River Plate, Sun Screen,
Sudden Storm and West Coast Gold.
With the scratching at this stage of four horses
from the top 30 list, there is still a chance for
one or two of this nine, and those candidates
running in the Gold Challenge, to make the cut and
one can expect them all to be fighting tooth and
nail for victory.
This race will be another cracker and, together with
the Gold Challenge, will make a trip to Clairwood on
Saturday very worthwhile.
THE FINAL CHALLENGE
The three finals of the KwaZulu-Natal Chapter
Challenge Series will form part of tomorrow’s
programme at Clairwood adding additional interest to
the meeting.
The series has become one of the most popular
competitions run in the province which enables
horses that don’t quite make it into races in the
feature programme to race for a stake of R150 000.
Each series is run over a period of a few months and
operates on all merit rated handicaps other than
feature races. Runners are eligible to run in the
qualifying races provided their merit rating does
not exceed 90 in any race in which they compete.
Points are awarded relative to finishing positions
on a sliding scale from first to seventh with
runner’s eligibility for the finals depending on
their points tally at the end of each series.
The three finals – over 1 200m, 1 600m and 2 000m –
each carry a stake of R150 000 and, as the final
fields for these races are so closely matched, the
races have always produced close and exciting
finishes.
Tomorrow’s finals have again drawn very competitive
fields and the possibility of the favourites being
beaten, leading to healthy dividends in the
individual events and the exotics, is good.