First Entries for the Hollywood Durban July Tuesday 18 April - Early pics

Pacaya and Quasiforsure although rated, 104, if either of them win the Greyville 1900, the rating will only go up to 110. Definitely the ones to keep an eye out for if they get the distance.

Not correct. The 6-point-max-penalty-for-winner was dispensed with last year and is not operative this year. They will be handicapped as the handicapper sees the result, without favour.

JayPeg19 wrote:

Not correct. The 6-point-max-penalty-for-winner was dispensed with last year and is not operative this year. They will be handicapped as the handicapper sees the result, without favour.

Thanks.

With 73 days to go, the cream of the country’s middle distance thoroughbreds were among the 60 horses nominated for this year’s R5 million Hollywoodbets Durban July to be run at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Saturday, July 1, celebrating this year’s theme ‘Out Of This World’.

The first round of nominations closed on Tuesday, April 18, but there is still a chance for late entries with a further two supplementary stages before the final field is announced on Tuesday, June 20.

Justin Snaith has trained the winner of the country’s most prestigious race on five occasions and another victory will see him equal Terrance Millard’s six wins, one short of maestro Syd Laird’s seven. Snaith is likely to hold another strong hand this year as he has entered nine runners. Mike de Kock, Sean Tarry and Brett Crawford have nominated seven each.

Heading the list of nominations is the Snaith-trained July veteran Do It Again. Now eight years old he has visited the “July” winner’s box twice and has been placed on two other occasions. Should he take his place in this year’s field, he will become the first horse in the history of the race to contest it on six occasions.

Stable companion and favourite for last year’s race, Pomp And Power, is again in the running along with last year’s Gr1 Daily News 2000 winner Safe Passage.

Highest rated three-year-old in the race is the Michael Roberts-trained See It Again. The half brother to Do It Again was given a tremendous ride in the Gr1 SplashOut Cape Derby by veteran jockey Piere Strydom to get the better of hot favourite Charles Dickens with other July nominations Without Question and At My Command in third and fourth respectively. Strydom, a four-time winner of the race starting with London News in 1996, has been threatening retirement for some time now but has been pushing back the final date as his services aboard top horses are suddenly in demand.

Rachel Venniker was due to become the first female rider in the race when she was booked by Joey Soma to partner Gr1 SA Classic winner Red Saxon last year, however a fall a week before the big race ruled her out. She is first call rider for Roberts but was replaced aboard See It Again by Strydom for the Met. Red Saxon is again among the nominations.

Vaughan Marshall will be hoping that it will be third time lucky for Linebacker, second behind Kommetdieding two years ago.
Three-year-olds have an outstanding record in recent years and they are strongly represented this year.

Cousin Casey is at the top of the sponsors’ betting boards along with See It Again. Also among the nominations are Anfields Rocket, Billy Bowlegs and recent impressive winner Dave The King from the Mike de Kock yard.

Darryl Moore has nominated his star Grade 1 winning filly Canadian Summer – yet to finish further back than second - while Sean Tarry has nominated two sophomore fillies in Bless My Stars and Winter Greeting and the year older Rain In Holland.

Not among the first nominations was the Ricky Maingard-trained Gr 1 L’Ormarins King’s Plate winner Al Muthana and boom three-year-old Charles Dickens. The former was always going to be an optimistic entry as the 2200m July trip is probably out of his compass. He finished down the field behind the filly Sparkling Water last year when trained by Mike de Kock while trainer Candice Bass-Robinson made it clear after Charles Dickens’ defeat in the SplashOut Cape Derby that the July was not on the colt’s agenda.

In the absence of Al Muthana - the highest merit rated horse in the country - top three-year-olds See It Again and Cousin Casey will be pushed up the handicap and will carry the maximum weight for three-year-old males.

The gallops, compulsory for all final entries, will take place on Thursday, June 22, at Hollywoodbets Greyville starting at 7am.
Devin Heffer, Brand and Communications Manager of Hollywoodbets said, “The rocket has officially launched for this year’s Hollywoodbets Durban July! We recently announced the 2023 theme ‘Out of this World’, and race day tickets went on sale to the public this past Monday. It’s all systems go and now the real stars of the show come to the fore with the announcement today of 60 hopefuls for one of the 18 prized berths in a race that captures the public’s imagination like no other. The real fun begins as racing purists and punters begin the great debate as to who will wear the crown on 1 July.”

“It’s a joy to have Hollywoodbets as headline sponsors and they did a fantastic promotional job at short notice last year,” said Gold Circle Racing Executive Raf Sheik. “The race has again attracted the best horses in the country and we are all set for another tremendous renewal of the Hollywoodbets Durban July.”

The eventual Durban July winner is not in this list. 📝


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If one goes on official ratings, See it Again should be carrying 58 kgs, but the max for a 3yr-old male is only 57kgs - so in effect will be carrying 1kg less than in a proper handicap - however I have my doubts about the ratings given in the Cape Derby

Frodo wrote:

If one goes on official ratings, See it Again should be carrying 58 kgs, but the max for a 3yr-old male is only 57kgs - so in effect will be carrying 1kg less than in a proper handicap - however I have my doubts about the ratings given in the Cape Derby

With See It Again rated 124 now, I assume At My Command (rated 114) was the line horse?

I don't think either At My Command or Charlie D stay 2000m, whilst Rockpool clearly ran about 6L below his previous run in the Politician when beating Without Question by 0,5L at level weights. WQ clearly gets the 2000m, so his proximity to the 1st and 2nd (rated 99 coming into the Derby) should surely have made the handicappers think twice about going so high on See It Again. His rating is far too high imo. WQ and SIT both 'improved' by 20 points? Highly unlikely.

SIA is much more realistically 'really' rated in the 116-118 range. 124 will stop his chances in the July.

AL MUTHANA IS THE MOST IMPORTANT JULY HORSE

By David Thiselton

The first entries for the Hollywoodbets Durban July will be announced today and, oddly, the most important name among them will be a horse who is currently way out at 67/1 in the ante-post betting.

That horse is the Ricky Maingard-trained Al Muthana, whose victory in the Grade 1 L'Ormarins King's Plate saw his merit rating soaring up to 133.

He has become the most important horse in this year's July because if he is still standing his ground on Tuesday June 13, the day the weights will be set, the weight structure of the race is going to be completely different to what it would be if he is no longer in the line up.

Presuming the first 20 in the betting will be the final runners in the July, let's take a look at how different the weights will be in the three possible scenarios relating to Al Muthana.

The weights below are done using current merit ratings, but of course these merit ratings could still change significantly before the setting of the weights.

Scenario 1: Al Muthana is not in the Hollywoodbets Durban July field at the time of the setting the weights.

Pomp And Power (124) 60kg
Safe Passage (124) 60kg
Puerto Manzano (123) 59,5kg
Rascallion (122) 59kg
Zapatillas (122) 59kg
Golden Ducat (120) 58kg
Rain In Holland (120) 58kg
See It Again (124) 57kg
Cousin Casey (122) 57kg
Anfields Rocket (120) 56kg
Without Question (119) 55,5kg
Son Of Raj (115) 53.5kg
Biily Bowlegs (114) 53kg
At My Command (114) 53kg
Feather Boa (114) 53kg
Royal Aussie (112) 53kg
Dave The King (111) 53kg
Rockpool (109) 53kg
Pacaya (104) 53kg
None Other (110) 52kg

Scenario 2: Al Muthan is in the weights and ultimately runs in the big race.

Al Muthana (133) 60kg
Pomp And Power (124) 55,5kg
Safe Passage (124) 55,5kg
Puerto Manzano (123) 55kg
Rascallion (122) 54.5kg
Zapatillas (122) 54.5kg
Golden Ducat (120) 53.5kg
Rain In Holland (120) 53.5kg
See It Again (124) 53.5kg
Cousin Casey (122) 53kg
Anfields Rocket (120) 53kg
Without Question (119) 53kg
Son Of Raj (115) 53kg
Biily Bowlegs (114) 53kg
At My Command (114) 53kg
Royal Aussie (112) 53kg
Dave The King (111) 53kg
Rockpool (109) 53kg
Pacaya (104) 53kg
Feather Boa (114) 52kg
None Other (110) 52kg

Scenario 3: Al Muthana is still standing his gound at the setting of the weights but is subsequently scratched.

Pomp And Power (124) 60kg
Safe Passage (124) 60kg
Puerto Manzano (123) 59,5kg
Rascallion (122) 59kg
Zapatillas (122) 59kg
Golden Ducat (120) 58kg
Rain In Holland (120) 58kg
See It Again (124) 58kg
Cousin Casey (122) 57.5kg
Anfields Rocket (120) 57.5kg
Without Question (119) 57.5kg
Son Of Raj (115) 57.5kg
Biily Bowlegs (114) 57.5kg
At My Command (114) 57.5kg
Royal Aussie (112) 57.5kg
Dave The King (111) 57.5kg
Rockpool (109) 57.5kg
Pacaya (104) 57.5kg
Feather Boa (114) 56.5kg
None Other (110) 56.5kg

Those are three vastly different weight structures influenced by just one horse.

There are many who believe Al Muthana will not stay the July distance and would be best served defending his crown in the Grade 1 Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge and then running in the Grade 1 HKJC World Pool Champions Cup over 1800m.

However, even if he does avoid the July he could have an influence on the July weights.

For example if he finishes third in the Gold Challenge he could well be used as the line horse because of his consistency in Grade 1 weight for age mile events.

If the race is won, in that case, by a July horse like Pomp And Power or Safe Passage either one them might end up with a merit rating in the 130s.

It is an intriguing July this year, but the purists will be looking among the entries today for one name in particular ... Al Muthana.

Interesting. But I doubt he would be the line horse if he finished say 3rd or even 2nd in the Gold Challenge.


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Article was obviously written before the First Entries were made public ..... fact remains that Al Muthana is not amongst the first entries - and I doubt if the connections would consider entering him at a later stage (at additional cost) on 13 June when Final Supplementary Entries fall due (even if he wins the Gold Challenge on 10 June)

I agree with JAP - the ratings for the Cape Derby imo is laughable.

Too many unknowns at this stage - is Safe Passage (and others) being aimed at the race - while many other runners will walk the thin line between getting their ratings up enough to squeeze in at the bottom of the weights and not being penalized by the Handicapper too harshly

And I'm probably jus being dof, but I don't know how the weights as put forward in Scenario 3 will materialize

naresh wrote:

Pacaya and Quasiforsure although rated, 104, if either of them win the Greyville 1900, the rating will only go up to 110. Definitely the ones to keep an eye out for if they get the distance.

Quasiforsure good win on Saturday and his rating will go up for sure - maybe around 110/111 - big difference though between 1400 and 2200 :dry:

I see also that some people put more faith in the official ratings than me - See It Again (as mentioned before on official ratings he should be carrying 58 - but the max for a 3 yr-old is 57) is now down to 10/1 on some sites :ohmy:

It is important to note that the last three July's were won by horses carrying 53,5 kgand drawn on the outside.

Greyville appeared to have a bias for horses winning on the outside. A draw over 10 will be good.