Igugu to Mauritius
June 22, 2012Nice double for Sheikh Hamdan
June 25, 2012BOTH Jackson and Ilha Bela have drifted in the betting after the barrier positions for the Grade 1 Vodacom Durban July were drawn.
The final field for the R3-million race to be run over 2200m at Greyville on Saturday 7 July was disclosed on Thursday after which each trainer was called up to pull the draws for their runners. With two reserve runners added to the 20-horse field, positions for all 22 runners were drawn. Favourite Jackson landed No 18 position while second favourite Ilha Bela drew No 21.
When bookmakers reopened the betting, Jackson, who was trading at 16-10, was available at 2-1 on Betting World while Ilha Bela had gone out from 5-1 to 6-1. English Garden, who drew No 10, and Vettel (No 9) have come in to 8-1.
Jockey arrangements see Karis Teetan aboard Jackson, trained by Brett Crawford, while Anthony Delpech rides Ilha Bela for trainer Mike de Kock. Anton Marcus will be on Vettel for De Kock and Bernard Fayd’Herbe rides Mike Bass-trained English Garden.
Trainer Sean Tarry saddles three runners and drew both extremities. He will be happy that Whiteline Fever (Glen Hatt) will jump from pole position but Pomodoro (Piere Strydom) will start the race from the widest draw of all. His third runner, Gold Onyx (Gavin Lerena), will start from barrier No 2. – Racing Express.<
1 Comment
I think that the false rail at greyville should be at least 14m to give all the horses in 20 horse field a fair chance even with a poor draw. The past few runnings of the July (with the false in 6-8m) has produced very boring july runnings with very little excitement at the finish and only horses that were in a handy position managed to run into the first 3 and those that were in the second half of the field or raced wide only ran on after the handier horses have skipped away at the top of the straight. So if Jackson, Ilha Bella and horses get caught wide in the early stages try win from off the pace with the false rail in the race will be over before they start chasing. You need the course set up like when Pocket Power/Dancers daughter won, then you’ll see the whole field spread across the track at the finish and not purely relying on luck in running. It is very surprising that no trainer or owner has picked up on this and complained. If you want a new strip put the false rail wider before the july not put it in.
Regards
Hylton perumal