There are just three weeks to go to the country’s premier race, the Vodacom Durban July, and it is interesting to note that both the favourite Legislate and the topweight King Of Pain are sired by former winners of the race, Dynasty and Greys Inn respectively.
The Dean Kannemeyer-trained 2003 July victor Dynasty is often regarded as the big race’s most talented ever winner, for as a three-year-old he jumped from draw 20 under Robbie Fradd, fought for his head for most of the way while running very wide and still managed to pass the top class Yard-Arm in the straight.
Dynasty is a son of the champion sire Fort Wood, who also produced the 2007 winner Hunting Tower. He is proving to be a fantastic sire himself and this could be the third time he will have had a July favourite. His two previous July favourites were also three-year-olds, Irish Flame and Jackson, and like Legislate they both won the Gr 1 Daily News 2000. Both Legislate and Jackson were also Gr 1 Cape Derby winners, while Irish Flame won the Gr 1 SA Derby by nearly ten lengths. Irish Flame finished second in the July in 2010, while Jackson was a hot favourite two years ago, but ran below par and finished unplaced.
Effectively Dynasty will have a 60% strike rate of producing the July favourite if Legislate maintains his status at the top of the market as Irish Flame was from his first crop. This statistic could have even been 80% as his son Run For It arrived on course last year as the joint ruling favourite before drifting out to 8-1 and finishing runner up.
Legislate is currently 7-2 and if he does win the July, Dynasty will lay claim to having the best male and female in the country, if he can’t claim that already, as he is also sire of the darling of the South African turf Beach Beauty. He also has two borderline horses vying for a place in the final July field, Run For It and Futura. The latter is fancied in the market at 7-1.
Dynasty, who was a four-times Gr 1 winner himself, has produced five Gr 1 winners to date and between them they have won 12 Gr 1 races.
Earlier this season he achieved the notable feat of having the first four past the post in the Gr 2 Selangor Cup (De Kock, Legislate, Speed Rocket and Dynastic Power). Dynasty, who stands at Highlands Farm Stud, is currently third on the National Sires log.
Greys Inn was rated as a sire of the future by his trainer Mike de Kock long before his first crop were running.
The USA-bred bay was a typically tough son of one of New Zealand’s most influential ever sires, Zabeel.
Greys Inn won the July as a three-year-old in 2004 after winning the SA Derby and finishing third in the Daily News.
He then campaigned overseas and won the Gr 3 Dubai City Of Gold Stakes over 2400m at Nad Al Sheba before finishing fourth in the Gr 1 Dubai Sheema Classic over the same course and distance. He then finished a fine second in the Gr 1 QE II Cup over 2 000m at Sha Tin in Hong Kong, beaten only by the mighty Vengeance Of Rain, and he later finished fourth in the Gr 1 Caufield Stakes in Australia before becoming the first South African horse to run in the Melbourne Cup.
Greys Inn stands at Rosedene Stud and King Of Pain became his second Gr 1 winner recently when staying on strongly from the front in the Gr 1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge to beat three multiple Gr 1 winners, Beach Beauty, Yorker and Capetown Noir. Greys Inn’s first Gr 1 winner was the SA Derby dead-heater Royal Bencher.
King Of Pain will stay the trip of the July and is currently a 14-1 shot with Betting World.
Only three horses in history have both won the July and sired a winner, although one filly that won it also had a victorious son.
The 1909 winner King’s Favourite produced the 1915 winner Winnipeg, the 1941 winner Sadri II produced the 1951 and 1954 winners, Gay Jane and C’est Si Bon respectively, and the 1987 winner Bush Telegraph produced the 1996 winner London News.
The 1903 winner Peerless was the dam of the only ever two-year-old to win the race, the 1911 winner Nobleman.
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