Durban July gets Zimbabwean flavour

Sport
AFRICA’S biggest horse racing event — the Vodacom Durban July Handicap — has received a Zimbabwean flavour after two top Borrowdale Racecourse trainers Cornie Spies and Alyson Wright have entered in

AFRICA’S biggest horse racing event — the Vodacom Durban July Handicap — has received a Zimbabwean flavour after two top Borrowdale Racecourse trainers Cornie Spies and Alyson Wright have entered into the fray.

BY MICHAEL KARIATI

The 2015 competition is set for Greyville Racecourse in Durban, South Africa on July 4.

The two Zimbabwean trainers, however, are not over ambitious as they have declared only one horse each for the race that is sponsored to the tune of $360 000 and is being run over an endurance demanding distance of 2 200 metres.

Trainers nominate horses they deem fit to compete in a particular race and then declare a jockey for that same horse when it has passed through the final acceptance stage.

Spies is hoping to unleash in the Durban July Handicap, three year old All The Bids who was supposed to have been in Zimbabwe for yesterday’s Castle Tankard but was a card scratching a few days before Zimbabwe’s only Grade One horse race.

On the other hand, Wright is hoping that her four-year-old gelding Kochka will get the nod in the Vodacom Durban July Handicap which is expected to gather a final field of 20 horses.

The two horses are among the initial list of 67 Vodacom Durban July Handicap nominations, but the horses will be pruned to the final field of 20 which will grace the stage for the most prestigious horse racing event on the continent.

Wright finished fifth in the 2014 trainer standings in Zimbabwe with Spies just two places behind, at that time, Lisa Harris emerged as the champion trainer but has of late not been racing regularly at the home of Zimbabwean horse racing.

Although Harris is a regular campaigner in South Africa, she has not entered any nominations for the Durban July Handicap.

Should All The Bids and Kochka go past the final acceptances, Spies and Wright will have the opportunity to take part in an event that attracts around 50 000 race goers who pack Greyville Racecourse for the 12 mega rich races on offer for the day.

Should that happen, the two trainers will be on the path to history as no Zimbabwean trainer has won the Durban July Handicap since 1970 when the race was remodelled to its current form, 73 years later. Spies and Wright are also hoping to follow in the heels of Ipi Tombe, the great Zimbabwean horse who won the Durban July Handicap in 2002 when the race had been modified from the original 1 600 metres to the longer 2 200 metres which is being contested for these days. Winning the Vodacom Durban July is the best thing to happen to any African horse owner, trainer, jockey, and even groomer as it sometimes opens broader horizons, as happened to the legendary Ipi Tombe.

After the Durban July title, Ipi Tombe was invited and became the first ever Zimbabwean bred horse to win a race at the historic Churchill Downs in Louisville in Kentucky in the USA.

What made Ipi Tombe’s success the more remarkable was the fact that the horse was placed alongside the likes of Colorado King who after winning the Durban July in 1963 went on to win the Hollywood Gold Cup in the USA a year later.

Colorado King went on to set a world record for nine furlongs in winning the American Handicap at the Hollywood Park Racetrack.

More importantly is the fact that simply participating in the Vodacom Durban July is a great honour as the race attracts only the best horses, trainers, and jockeys from around Africa, including those from Mauritius and Kenya where racing is highly competitive.

The Vodacom Durban July, which has a total stake money of around $360 000, is the richest race on the African calendar but has not attracted a Zimbabwean horse for years as they do not meet the standards of taking part in such a high profile event.

Although Spies and Wright are looking forward to this prestigious race, they are doing so on the strength of South African horses as All The Bids and Kochka were both bred in South Africa.