The 126th running of the Hollywoodbets Durban July has been consigned to the history books and it belonged to Mary Slack, whose homebred filly Sparkling Water carried her silks to a coveted first July success.
Technically, Mary already had a July winner to her name, for she is the breeder of former Horse of the Year Dynasty, who overcame the extreme outside draw to capture the time-honoured race in 2003.
Steven Jell raises Mom-In-Law Mary Slack’s hand after a great victory (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
The son of Fort Wood subsequently became a standout stallion and on Saturday, it was fascinating to witness the impact he and other former winners exerted on the day’s stakes results.
Dynasty started the day on a high when his son One Way Traffic broke through at Graded race level with a fluent victory in the ‘Consolation July’, the Gr3 Vodacom 2200.
Second place went to Super Silvano, a son of Bold Silvano. Trained by Mike de Kock, he won the 2010 July at the expense of Dynasty’s first-crop son, the subsequent Horse of the Year Irish Flame.
Barely thirty minutes later, Dynasty’s name again came up in lights, this time as the broodmare sire of the first two past the post in the Gr3 DStv Gold Vase.
The winner Black Thorn, out of Dynasty’s placed daughter Ebony Rose, opened his stakes account in the 3000m race in what was surely a perfect warm-up for the Gold Cup at the end of the month. The four-year-old’s pedigree screams ‘Durban July’, considering his sire Pomodoro won the big race in 2012, who like his son, was trained by Sean Tarry.
Gold Vase runner-up Rex Union, a Drakenstein homebred by Duke Of Marmalade, earned his first black type here and is the third stakes performer produced by Dynasty’s champion daughter Beach Beauty, a dual winner of yet another firm fixture on the July day programme, the Gr1 Garden Province Stakes.
Remarkably, her first Garden Province success came at the expense of no less than Espumanti, the dam of Sparkling Water!
Sparkling Water (Smanga Khumalo) charges home (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
Dynasty went on to complete a quickfire double as a broodmare sire, courtesy of Ameena’s victory in the Gr2 Zulu Kingdom Explorer Golden Slipper. Already a Graded stakes winner of the Gr3 Strelitzia Stakes, the Quasillo juvenile out of Dynasty mare Sabaha got the better of Woodland Retreat, a daughter of Pomodoro.
Dynasty is also one of a select band of July winners to have sired a July winner. His son Legislate, who triumphed in 2013 and is one of three of his sire’s Horse of the Year recipients, is strutting his stuff as a stallion despite his well-recorded fertility problems. He was represented in this year’s July by first reserve runner Airways Law. Considered unlucky not to have made the final field, Sabine Plattner’s four-year-old sneaked into the race at the very last minute and certainly did not disgrace himself by finishing sixth.
Third in Legislate’s July was yet another son of Dynasty, multiple champion and Horse of the Year, Futura. This up-and-coming stallion sired a new stakes winner on the day when three-year-old son Xavion ran on strongly to capture the meeting’s Listed mile race previously known as the Thukela Handicap.
Finally, it would be remiss not to mention that the remainder of the day’s stakes races went the way of former Maine Chance supremo Silvano and his excellent son Vercingetorix.
Silvano’s dominance on the July is such that Sparkling Water is his fifth winner, a record unlikely to be bettered. Vercingetorix, who has seamlessly stepped into Silvano’s shoes at Maine Chance, weighed in with a fine Gr2 double, his juvenile son Cousin Casey capturing the Durban Golden Horseshoe, while Val D’Orcia defeated a fine field of sprinters in the Post Merchants.
There is no doubt that the Hollywoodbets Durban July firmly retains its status as the holy grail of South African racing. It is therefore heartening that former winners have exerted their influence on the splendour of the meeting. Long may it continue.
Read more – please click on the image:
