Legislate – Horse Of The Year
While he will go down in South African horseracing history as one of the most widely debated Vodacom Durban July winners in living memory, the sensational Dynasty colt Legislate shrugged off the big-race hangover of negative sentiment with his trademark fighting spirit as he emulated his illustrious sire by being crowned SA Horse Of The Year last Wednesday evening.
The twisted irony and high drama of world-class sporting achievement doesn’t get much closer yet more diverse than the brilliant father and son and an iconic race called the Durban July.
Dynasty gave us the July thrill at its best. He won it in 2003 after his Daily News victory in emphatic style from a 20 draw.
Legislate probably gave us the July thrill at its marginal worst. He won it last month after his Daily News victory, but frankly half unconvincingly on an objection.
Objections are contentious. Gr1 objections are a nightmare.
But the result went into the frame after an agonising Boardroom line- call that had to be one of the most difficult ever.
Runs Deep
And to those who suggest that Legislate swung the Horse Of The Year title on that boardroom decision, it may be worthwhile looking at his record. The golden thread runs much deeper.
Firstly, only four July winners in the last thirteen years have gone on to claim Horse Of The Year, so glory in the Greyville flagship event is no rubber stamp.
Legislate came out of the season with four great wins on the trot.
He won the Gr1 Cape Derby, the Gr2 KRA Guineas, the Gr1 Daily News 2000 and landed up banking the July winner’s cheque.
That is top drawer stuff and he was always going to be tough to argue against.
The Legislate Team at Equus (JC Photos)
Pacesetters
The pacesetters with him for the coveted award had to be all of Yorker, Beach Beauty and to a lesser extent the SASOC Triple Crown winner, Louis The King.
The latter blotted his copybook in the KZN Champions Season and we have notoriously short memories in this game. He went home empty handed after Equus.
Yorker, like Legislate, the son of a former Horse Of The Year, had a superb season, winning all of the Gr1 Sansui Summer Cup, Gr1 Horse Chestnut Stakes and Gr1 President’s Champion Challenge as well as finishing second in the Gr1 J&B Met, and third in a slow run Gr1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge.
He beat some of the country’s very best in open company, and consistently excelled at the highest level.
He left South Africa for foreign shores and was thus not tested in the July. He walked off with the Champion Older Male award on Wednesday evening.
The Dynasty mare Beach Beauty retired to Drakenstein in a blaze of glory in July and there would have been a huge weight of public sentiment bearing down on the selection panel. She was a crowd favourite and beat Yorker when second in the Gr1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge. She also won three Gr1’s last season.
The fact that all of those Grr1 victories came against fillies and mares, and that she never won a Gr1 race in open company would have probably counted against her in the end. But she was awarded some catalogue page boosting consolation as Champion Older Filly/ Mare.
Speed Family
The Cheveley Stud bred Legislate is one of 17 stakes winners for former South African Horse of the Year Dynasty, who, like him, won the Daily News 2000 and the Vodacom Durban July in 2003.
A R100 000 (believe it!) National Yearling Sale graduate, Legislate is out of the four-time winning sprinting Restructure mare Champers. He is her first stakes winner from three runners and his full sister sold for R550 000 at the National Yearling Sale in April 2014.
Interestingly, speed is very much a feature on the dam’s side.
Legislate is owned by Newbury Racing in partnership with Jack Mitchell (whose daughter Nancy named him) and Drakenstein Stud
And while he didn’t win the National Trainer Championship for Justin Snaith, he turned that contest into a one-horse race.
Big Night For Var
In lifting the prized trophy, Legislate’s connections wrested the title from the brilliant world-conquering Var colt Variety Club, who won it for the past two years.
Not since Pocket Power’s dominance – he was Horse Of The Year in 2007, 2008 and 2009- has a horse so dominated the racing landscape as Variety Club has done.
The son of Var won the Special Achievement Award and the Special International Achievement Award for his extraordinary exploits over the past season in Dubai and Hong Kong.
Avontuur’s super sire Var also produced the Champion Sprinter when the Duncan Howell’s trained flyer Via Afrika became the second daughter of Var to win the award after Val De Ra in 2010/11.
Drakenstein-based stallion What A Winter won it the last two years.
