Royal Victory winning the Gr 1 World Pool Premier’s Champions Challenge (Candiese Lenferna Photography)
Summerveld trainer Nathan Kotzen confirmed he was pleased with his Hollywoodbets Durban July hope Royal Victory’s third place finish in the Pinnacle Stakes event over 1500m at Holywoodbets Scottsville on Sunday and in further good news he revealed there was a Pinnacle event over a mile the horse will be able to run in at Hollywoodbets Scottsville on June 17.
Tony Rivalland said there had been a request to put on a Pinnacle race on that day and it had been granted.
Nathan said about Sunday’s run, “I was very happy with the run, it was a nice prep run and he was running on nicely. As you can see it doesn’t take much to get Royal Victory comimg back well from a break. The winner (Dave The King) was very hard to beat over that distance. It was short of our horse’s best distance and he was running on. That is what I wanted to see, so I am very happy with the run.”
He said the dual gr 1-winning Pathfork gelding had come out of the race well too.
The Pinnacle event will be on a Monday and will be 19 days out from the July.
It should put him spot on and give him a chance to just go through the motions at the Hollywoodbets Durban July gallops on June 27.
The final field and draw ceremony will be on June 25 and Nathan will be hoping for a draw anywhere in the first six.
Muzi Yeni will be back aboard.
Royal Victory is currently a 25/2 shot for the big race.
