It's going to be a Durban July for the ages

Local heroes – three-year-old colt See It Again and his trainer Michael ‘Muis’ Roberts – are the story of the 2023 Hollywoodbets Durban July.

It has been decades since a KwaZulu-Natal-based horse has topped the betting boards for South Africa’s premier horse race – and no fewer than 29 years since there was a locally trained winner. If See It Again and the mighty Muis pull it off – with no little help from Eastern Cape boytjie Piere ‘Striker’ Strydom in the saddle – there won’t be a dry eye in the house.

Sentiment is all very well. But this is the July, the ultimate prize for everyone in the game, so – as always – competition for the winner’s sash is ferocious.

Ranged against Roberts and his relatively modest Summerveld stables in Hillcrest are powerhouse operations from the Highveld and Western Cape that have dominated this famous event for decades – namely Mike de Kock, Justin Snaith, Sean Tarry and the Bass family.

De Kock and Snaith are going for their sixth July titles – which will match the mark of the great Terrence Millard and edge them closer to Syd Laird’s once seemingly unassailable seven.

De Kock’s booking of superstar European rider Christophe Soumillon for the beautifully prepared Safe Passage must make that horse a major runner. Generous looking odds of 10-1 are largely due to a wide draw.

Snaith will saddle five runners, with two of them – Without Question and Pacaya – among the top four in the betting. Stable jockey Richard Fourie, who is in hot form, has chosen the former; the latter looks very well weighted; but Snaith is talking up the chances of his eight-year-old warhorse and dual July champion Do It Again.

Meanwhile, Brett Crawford-trained Winchester Mansion has gone from non-entity to second favourite in six short weeks after being gelded, running Pacaya a close second in the Greyville 1900, and winning the Cup Trial.

All in all, it’s the usual Durban July conundrum: a wide-open race and a million differences of opinion among the pundits.

July day is not just about the big race, though, and a clutch of other graded races and a predicted Pick 6 pool of R20-million offers plenty of grist for that mill of divided opinion.

Good luck!

7 See It Again, 6 Do It Again, 14 Safe Passage, 3 Time Flies