There will be plenty of hangover from the Durban July, but punters will be right back at it at Turffontein on Sunday.
Stragglers from Durban July afterparties have barely made their way out of Greyville racecourse as flags are unfurled up-county at Turffontein ahead of a full Sunday race meeting.
The handful of participants and spectators in Joburg will be swapping war stories about the Durban action but will soon switch attention to the next race. Always the next race.
Yet a whiff of the July remains in the air because the main race at the Big T is the 4Racing Sea Cottage Stakes (Grade 3) – honouring the great horse of the 1960s whose saga of shooting and dead-heating lifted July mythology to a whole new level.
July connections
Some runners in Sunday’s Sea Cottage – third leg of a new Highveld Winter Series – have connections to the July, too, in that they were early entries for the big race and/or have collateral form with some that ran in the July.
Top weight Fire Attack was at one stage an ante-post favourite for the July. Trainer Alec Laird scratched the colt due to a minor training setback but has since patched him up well enough to take on a decent field at this lower level.
Fire Attack does look a cut above this opposition and is weighted to win easily. The only question is posed by his 99-day rest period, but Laird has commented that he believes the horse will run well.
The other runner occupying punters’ thoughts will be Erico Verdonese-trained Choisaanada, who will be trying to complete a Winter Series sweep after having won the first two legs, the Secretariat Stakes and the Egoli Mile.
If he does complete the hat-trick, he’ll win a R500,000 bonus for the connections. Punters can stay on the right side of that incentive by including Choisaanada in all bets.
SELECTION
1 Fire Attack, 3 Choisaanada, 6 Pumpkin Pie, 2 Musical Score
