Durban July (Group 1)

THE Conglomerate became the fourth Durban July winner in five years to come home at 16/1 or more when springing a 20/1 shock at a packed Greyville last Saturday – and no-one was more surprised than his rider.

Six times champion Piere Strydom revealed afterwards that he had hoped for stable companion St Tropez (who finished last but one) when he asked for the ride and that he had then repeatedly tried to get off the winner.

“I was offered so many better fancied mounts,” he said reeling off a litany of major contenders. “In the end I was on the outsider of Joey Ramsden’s pair so I went out there just to enjoy myself.”

He certainly did that, making light of his outside draw, kicking at the top of the straight to hit the front a furlong and a half from home and passing the post a quarter of a length in front of the fast-finishing and singularly unlucky Marinaresco, who was second last of the field with two furlongs to run.

It was the fourth Durban July win for 50-year-old ‘Striker’ Strydom, equalling the record set by Tiger Wright 60 years ago and, more recently, matched by Anton Marcus and Anthony Delpech.

This was a long-awaited first success for Joey Ramsden, stepson of former Yorkshire trainer Linda Ramsden and half-brother of TV interviewer Emma Spencer. He has been training with considerable success since 1995 but victory in the Met and the July had always eluded him.

He is a colourful and frequently outspoken larger-than-life character and, when some of the non-racing press asked him what winning the country’s most famous race meant to him, he replied “Some serious drinking!”

It was also the first July victory for the country’s perennial leading owner Markus Jooste, who has become Ramsden’s principal patron and is a big buyer in Australia. The Conglomerate, a four-year-old gelding by the 11-time Group 1 winner Lonhro, was bought as a yearling for A$160,000 at the Inglis Premier.

“The July is the race I have always wanted to win but things hadn’t gone great for The Conglomerate and I thought he might not get into the race,” Ramsden said. “He had a virus in the Cape season and in last month’s Cup trial he got interfered with and was demoted from third to fourth. I wasn’t sure that would be good enough to get a run. I then cracked a terrible draw, but winning this has made it the best day of my life.”

BITTER DISAPOINTMENT

Grant van Niekerk was bitterly disappointed not to get up on Marinaresco, particularly as the horse’s wheelchair-confined trainer Mike Bass, who has done so much to help the young rider’s career, retires at the end of the month.

“I was always going to drop him in but I was drawn very wide and turning for home I had only one behind me,” Van Niekerk reported. “Then he put his ears flat back and took off. We so nearly got there.”

Dougie Whyte rode Black Arthur after finding himself in a game of musical chairs. The 13-time Hong Kong champion was originally booked for Abashiri but the Triple Crown winner’s connections were unhappy about him not arriving until mid-morning on the day of the race and reinstated stable jockey Craig Zackey.

Justin Snaith promptly snapped him up for the Canon Guineas winner Black Arthur, who ran rather better than his seventh place might suggest. “I would have been third but the horse was a little bit intimidated by Mac De Lago (who did finish third) leaning on me and taking me to the outside rail,” said Whyte, who at least came home in front of the disappointing Abashiri, thirteenth after finishing lame on his near-fore.

The Durban July is one of the highlights of the South African fashion circus, but an unexpected and unusually cold day played havoc with many of the scantily-dressed participants. They stuck, with an almost religious fervour, to their planned outfits but were forced to spend most of the long day – first race 11.25am and the last at 8.00pm – inside the stands.

However the 70 or so hardy individuals taking part in the traditional, but uncarded, thirteenth race stripped off without the slightest hesitation and tore down the final furlong as naked as the day they were born. I am not sure that President Jacob Zuma stayed long enough to watch but he was there for the big race and quite a few others.

Kingston Mines, an Archipenko gelding bred by Sonia Rogers in partnership with Kirsten Rausing, is to have a crack at the Gold Cup at the end of the month after making most of the running when third to the High Chaparral horse Enaad in the one mile and seven furlongs SABC Gold Vase.

“Kingston Mines has always had a good race in him,” said Mike de Kock who sent out the first four. “But the problem with half these races in Durban is that they have been run at such a slow pace and this horse is a natural front-runner.”

Smart Call at

Newmarket

SMART Call, winner of the Met and the Paddock Stakes in January, arrived in Newmarket last week after taking three days travelling from Mauritius. She has no further quarantine to contend with and trainer Alec Laird plans a tilt at the Sun Chariot Stakes as a preparation for the Filly and Mare Turf at the Breeders’ Cup meeting in Santa Anita.