It’s something of an anomaly in the international scheme of things that this country’s big three races – or possibly four if you include the Premier’s Champion Challenge – are not run at WFA. The Vodacom Durban July, J&B Met and Sansui Summer Cup all have differing weight conditions, writes Andrew Harrison.
Maybe it’s a colonial hangover from an era where betting was more important than the runners and the Durban July was a race for the masses rather than the well-heeled.
There are racing purists who still argue that all three of these events should be run at WFA to conform to the international pattern for Group 1 status.
While the purists have achieved a measure of success by getting the weight range compressed to be more acceptable internationally, it matters little in the bigger scheme of things. The word ‘handicap’ has been dropped from the official July name as it has morphed from a long handicap to where the weights are now but a token gesture.
The bottom line is that every racehorse owner and trainer dreams of a runner in the July, no matter the weights.
Jamaican Music – won in 1976 under the late Bert Abercrombie.
The history of the July stretches back over a century and to some extent can be equated to The Melbourne Cup, a race that holds international fascination and dubbed ‘the race that stops a nation’ and like the July breaks every rule as far as international Group 1 status is concerned. For one it’s a long handicap and secondly it’s run over two miles.
But quite honestly I don’t think the Aussies would give a damn one way or another if it lost its rating – pretty much the way most South African’s would feel about the July.
Like our July, it cocks a snoot at the world.
As Les Carlyon wrote about his beloved Cup, “No elite fields here. Instead up to twenty-four runners jostling and finessing so that if weight doesn’t stop a champion, the traffic probably will.”
There were enough hard luck stories in last year’s July to fill a book but all that finally counts are the finishing order posted by the judges and the people attending the spectacle.
Marquees the length of office blocks populate the Greyville infield like some garish squatter settlement that grows bigger each passing year.
Entry into one of these ‘tents’ is like gold. They provide the best of both worlds, a refuge from the masses and close enough to the action to catch a breath and a light libation before venturing back into the scrum. Refuge too for those less comfortably minded; those decked out in body suits, tottering on ridiculously high heels and cursing Jimmy Choo.
The purists come out in numbers
Come eight o’clock and threading your way in the dark back to your car you will constantly be stepping around prone forms of racing purists, so moved by the glory of what they have just seen on the track that they passed out and the moans and giggles coming from the bushes and bunkers, indications of a busy time in the shotgun trade and maternity wards come March the following year.
South Africa’s Champion season is under way in a fortnight and the Vodacom Durban July is but two months away.
Let the carnival begin.
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