With a day to go before the ‘behind-closed-doors’ running of the Vodacom Durban July, punters’ interests in who will win the most prestigious horseracing title on the African continent have seen them turn to a wide variety of sources, and some of the more unconventional ones suggest it will be a good day for a few of the hotly-fancied thoroughbreds.
Durban-based medium and clairvoyant Doreen Jacobs, pictured below, has been a fan of the raceday since watching it on television with her father and said this year she was fascinated by the energies she was picking up from some of the runners named in the eighteen-strong final field.
“It is not like me at all, but I felt I had to write a rhyme to formalise the energies I was picking up from the horses,” she said. She jotted down her spontaneous verse:
“With no spectators to emerge, social butterflies observe!
Colours of silk yellow, red and green. A rainbow bridge it would seem.
Belgarion is set to flight, just past the green light!
With no rain to dampen the day, I may just want to do it again!”
She was clear on the name of the Justin Snaith-trained Belgarion snatching the 2020 Vodacom Durban July title, apparently pulling away from Got The Greenlight in the closing stages, with a determined Do It Again and Rainbow Bridge challenging hard.
“I saw red, yellow and green silks featuring strongly at the end,” she said. Belgarion will be ridden by jockey Richard Fourie wearing scarlet silks with a gold cross across his chest, while Got The Greenlight will be carrying all red silks.
Ominously, the double-defending champion Do It Again will have the legendary Anton Marcus up in all yellow silks with blue epaulettes. Rainbow bridge will be ridden by Warren Kennedy wearing red and white checked silks.
Content with her rhyme, Jacobs added another caveat.
“There is just one other horse whose energy I cannot shake off, and that is Vardy,” she said. “It just feels like he is so strong and so fast at the moment.
“As an individual horse Vardy really stands out, so I see him as a real wild card,” she added.
“As we all know, you can’t just go on form and how the horse is feeling on the day. There is so much more to it, with the jockeys, the tactics and the sheer pressure of the race,” said Jacobs.
Meanwhile back at Hollywoodbets Greyville Racecourse, a decades-old tradition was honoured amidst all the changes being forced in the 123-year-old event, as Gold Circle staff planted twenty beans on the day that the final field was announced.
Gold Circle’s Event and Marketing Executive Steve Marshall surveys the progress of the Vodacom Durban July beans race and finds that Rainbow Bridge leading with a few days to go (Pic – Gameplan Media)
Tradition has it that the speed and height attained by these beans in the ten days before the big race is a reliable pointer to form.
With 72 hours to go to the race, Rainbow Bridge thrilled his fans by surging above the bean canopy, signalling his desire to win the main race.
The other top ‘runners’ were Vardy while, for the first week of growth, the little fancied Camphoratus seemed a sprouting bean-shoot better than the rest of the field of beans.
Some will turn to tea-leaves. Others to sangomas or tarot cards. For the thousands of socialites set to have their own ‘stay-at-home’ Vodacom Durban July parties, selection is more whimsical and based on the colour of the silks or the first impression gained from the photos of the thoroughbreds in the digital racecard available on the event website.
The 2020 Vodacom Durban July takes place at Hollywoodbets Greyville Racecourse on Saturday 25 July. More information can be found at www.vodacomdurbanjuly.co.za
- Medium/clairvoyant Doreen Jacobs can be contacted on 078 390 7821.
