Racing post preview :
Preview: South Africa, Saturday 3.30pm BST (live on TurfTV)
Greyville: Vodacom Durban July (Grade 1 hcap) 1m3f, turf
SOUTH AFRICAN legend Pocket Power (Mike Bass/Bernard Fayd'herbe) is assured of a third consecutive horse of the year title if he wins his country's greatest race, the SAR3 million (£235,000) Durban July at Greyville on Saturday.
The six-year-old is already the only horse to win the J & B Met three times, as well as three consecutive Queen's Plates.
He dead-heated with Dancer's Daughter in last year's July and victory here would make him only the sixth horse to win the July more than once in the race's 112-year history.
The Durban July is a Grade 1 handicap, but although Pocket Power must shoulder top-weight, only five of his 19 rivals are in the handicap proper.
Furthermore this season's tactic of riding him closer to the pace means that, unlike last year, Bernard Fayd'herbe has much less risk of finding his path blocked in thestraight. River Jetez (Glen Hatt), the favourite's stable companion and year-younger full-sister, is widely expected to prove the main danger.
Bass said: "River Jetez is a much stronger filly this year and she must be a big threat but unfortunately she is drawn wide. I'm in the Pocket Power camp - he has a huge change of doing the double."
Big City Life has proved himself the best three-year-old in the country and, as a winner of the Cape Derby, he is assured of getting the trip. Trainer Glen Kotzen has backed his belief with hard cash.
He said: "This horse is something special and there is a lot of money on him. We have been backing him from the time betting opened on the race."
Kapil has also been well supported but there are doubts about his stamina and there could be traffic problems.
Trainer Stan Elley said: "He's going to come from a long way back and he's going to need a lot of luck."
Anton Marcus, who shares the July record with four winners, has opted for Our Giant rather than the in-form Smart Banker and Mike de Kock reckons that Zirconeum is probably the best of his three runners.
Also on Saturday
Greyville: Mercedes-Benz Golden Slipper (Grade 1) 7f, turf, 2yo fillies (1.00pm BST)
There are three more Grade 1 races on the card, which is spread over eight hours and 12 races - plus the famous 13th when 50 or so male racegoers strip off and race naked over the final furlong.
Sean Tarry's Give Me Five, one of only two unbeaten fillies in the field and already a Grade 1 winner, had been expected to start favourite for the Golden Slipper. But she has been preferred in the ante-post market by Spring Clover, who has won three out of four.
Greyville: Golden Horseshoe (Grade 1) 7f, turf, 2yo (2.30pm BST)
Mike de Kock, who won last year's Golden Horseshoe with Forest Path, is responsible for a quarter of the 16-strong field.
The champion trainer said that, if he had to side with one, it would be Musir, explaining: "He ran off the course last time and might otherwise have beaten Solid Choice. Butif Solid Choice can overcome his wide draw and get in a good position, he will be a big runner too."
The betting is headed by the Australian-bred Exclaim'N'Exclude. Charles Laird's colt was relegated to third after beating all except Villandry in the Gold Medallion and could well be suited by the extra furlong.
Greyville: Garden Province Stakes (Grade 1) 1m, turf, fillies and mares (5.45pm BST)
Old rivals Sparkling Gem and Mother Russia clash once more. The bookmakers prefer Mother Russia but Justin Snaith is emphatic Cape Fillies Guineas winner Sparkling Gem is back to her best.
He said: "Sparkling Gem has come on a lot since her last win and she is right back to A-Game. Indeed the only thing that worries me is that the race is so late in the day.
"By 6.45pm we will have gone into night racing and also the track will be churned up by that stage."
>>Mark Khan has been injured and Dion Sampson will replace him on Aluminium in the Durban July.
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