Trip Of Fortune (Candiese Lenferna Photography)
Only four horses have won the Hollywoodbets Durban July with topweight this century, El Picha (2000), Pocket Power (2008), Marinaresco (2017) and Do It Again (2019).
Pocket Power was one of three July winners trained by Mike Bass, while Marinaresco’s victory saw his daughter Candice Bass-Robinson becoming the first woman in history to train a July winner.
Trip Of Fortune is this year’s topweight and will be out to add to the Bass’s proud record of winning the country’s premier race with a topweight.
The four-year-old 127 merit rated gelding caused something of a shock when supplemented.
Although he has won four Graded races this season, including the Gr 1 weight for age HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes over 1600m, he has never been tried beyond a mile in his career.
Trip Of Fortune is one of five Drakenstein Stud homebreds in the race.
He is one of seven Drakenstein-breds in the field and one of three runners who will be attempting to give Drakenstein’s superstar sire Trippi a deserved first win in the big race.
Candice said, “He is doing extremely well.”
Commenting on his draw of 16 she said, “It doesn’t really matter because we are going to drop him out anyway.”
She added, “He’s pretty fit. We haven’t had to do much between his last race and this one. The distance is a question mark, that is the only question really. But anything is possible in the July. There have been horses who don’t really stay who have won the July.”
Asked on whether there were training methods to put more stamina into a horse, such as giving him more long slow, work, she replied, “You can and we do, but, really, they are either going to stay or they are not going to.”
She added, “He has a good turn of foot and if there is any course where he is going to get away with it, it is HWB Greyville.”
On his July gallop she said, “We were racing in Cape Town that day, so Aldo stayed here. He didn’t need to gallop hard anyway.”
Candice’s first runner on Saturday will be The Charleston, a two-year-old The United States filly who will be going for a sales race double. She won the BSA Sales Cup for fillies over 1200m on Splashout Cape Derby day and now goes for the BSA Sales Cup for fillies over 1300m.
Candice said, “She got sick when she arrived in Durban, so she is a bit behind in her prep. She was in hospital for eight days. She has been back in training for about a month or so, or a bit more. She has had two gallops and she had a gallop at Greyville at the July gallops. It is her first time over the trip. I’m not sure what to expect here. She is one of the horses with the better form in the race. But it depends how much she is going to need it.”
To compound matters The Charleston is drawn ten out of 14.
The yard’s next runner is Distant Winter in the Gr 2 Zulu Kingdom Explorer Golden Slipper over 1400m. She has outstanding Cape Town form and it got better on Saturday when the stablemate she beat last time by 1,10 lengths in the Gr 3 Winter Nursery, October Morn, romped in by six lengths in the Listed Perfect Promise Sprint.
Candice said, “She’s got a strong formline. She’s got a lot of ability. It’s the first time she’s going over the trip. I think she will enjoy it. I think she’s got Sean Tarry’s filly Mrs Geriatrix to beat. She’s drawn well, she traveled well and she galloped well. But if Mrs Geriatrix stays she will be hard to beat.”
Candice runs three horses in the Grade 1 Ridgemont Garden Province Stakes, Going Up, Golden Hostess and Marina.
She said about Gimmethegreenlight four-year-old filly Going Up, “She’s a little bit outclassed there maybe. Last time she didn’t raise a gallop, but she is doing well at home and she would have come on from that run. She was a little bit nowehere that last run and it is tough for her I think against those fillies on weight for age terms.”
She said about Gold Standard three-year-old filly Golden Hostess, “She’s doing well … all of my horses are doing well and working well. She finished behind Desert Miracle and Captain’s Ransom in the Majorca and she will have a money chance. A mile is a touch on the far side for her.”
She said about Silvano mare Marina, “She has come on a lot from her run in the Woolavington 2000 (2,55 length fifth). It’s a touch on the sharp side for her but she did run second in this race last year. If she can repeat that she has a money chance.”
All three fillies have drawn wide in 9, 11 and 12.
Aldo Domeyer has elected to ride Golden Hostess in the Garden Province and rides the yard’s runners in the other three races.
