The Gr 1 HKJC Champions Cup, to be run on July 27 on World Pool Gold Cup day at Hollywoodbets Greyville, is usually believed to favour fresh horses who did not take part in the Hollywoodbets Durban July.

However, in Royal Victorys’s case he only had one run going onto the July so now has his third run after a layoff and trainer Nathan Kotzen confirmed that he is not jaded at all.

He said on Tuesday, “He is jumping out of his skin. This morning I just trotted him and he was so fresh I am going to have to start cantering him. I’ve given him a couple of days off and he’s eating up, he hasn’t left anything, and is so fresh I can’t believe it.”

The Pathfork gelding was attempting on Saturday to become the first horse to win all of the Gr 1 Betway Summer Cup, the Gr 1 Premier’s Champions Challenge and the July.

Nathan was proud of his third place finish and only had one lament.

He said, “I just think he should have gone in for a run. He rolled off the fence and Barbaresco slips through on his inside and turns for home next to the winner (on his quarters) … that is where Royal Victory should have been.”

Royal Victory ended up behind Oriental Charm and only got a clear run after Flag Man towards the outside began hanging inward.

However, Muzi Yeni can hardly be blamed as there were potentially three horses who could have been occupying the inside rail turning for home, the leader Oriental Charm, Flag Man, who was behind the leader, and Purple Pitcher, who was on the rail behind Flag Man and in front of Royal Victory.

He thus made a split second decision to roll off the rail, but unfortunately all of the aforementioned three did the same. Had he remained patient the inside gap would have been there but it looked an unlikely happening at the time he made the decision to roll outward.

Nevertheless, Royal Victory remains the highest earning horse in the country this season with an accumulation of a cool R4,625,250 and as he is a gelding there is always next year.

He was used as the line horse by the handicapper and remains on a merit rating of 125.

The horses merit rated higher than him among the weight for age Champions Cup entries are See It Again (131), Dave The King (127), Green With Envy (127) and Flag Man (126), while Cousin Casey has joined him on 125 after his July runner up finish.

And those participants suggest that South Africa’s top race fillies and mares should be on the radar of Australian breeders now that the country’s equine border restrictions have been relaxed, making it easier to export horses out of the country via Europe.

Mike de Kock and his clients have been supporting the Australian yearling market in recent years, but those horses – including valuable stakes winner Letsbefrankbaby (Frankel) – have been trained in Victoria by his son Mathew and Robbie Griffiths.

His South African training peers, however, have largely been unsighted at the Australian sales, hindered by a weak exchange rate for the rand (AU$1 = R12.27), which has also been exacerbated by the turbo-charged value of Australian bloodstock, making it increasingly difficult for them to compete.

But a renewed confidence in the local racing industry could prompt a group of South Africa’s owners and trainers to once again use Australia as a source of young horses to supplement its homebred stock.

Their revelation comes as the nation held its greatest race, the Durban July (Gr 1, 2200m), won by the Brett Crawford-trained Oriental Charm (Vercingetorix), a three-year-old co-owned by Cape Racing’s Greg Bortz.

The chairman of Cape Racing, Bortz has been an instrumental figure in a coordinated investment to lift the profile of thoroughbred racing in South Africa.

It includes taking over Cape Racing in partnership with online wagering company Hollywoodbets and in the soon-to-be rubber stamped acquisition of Gold Circle, the operator of racing in the province of KwaZulu-Natal where Durban’s racecourse Greyville is based.

“We’re just going through the final regulatory hurdles. We’re very committed to it, we’ve voted with our feet, we’ve put our money in and I think we’ve seen a remarkable resurgence in the industry and we don’t plan on stopping here,” Bortz said.

“By spending the money on the sport, we’ve stimulated the ownership interest again and we’re starting to see that [pay off]. We’re starting to see [horse] prices go up at the sales, the field sizes go up. They’re all the right signs.”

Prominent Cape Town-based trainer Justin Snaith, who has been operating a satellite stable at Summerveld Training Centre for the Durban racing season, is positive about the future of racing in South Africa.

“Yes, we’re planning on returning now that our racing [is improving]. We were hung up here in South Africa, it became more of a business than a passion for these guys and they actually ran the business into the ground,” said Snaith, whose father Chris bought champion South African sire Gimmethegreenlight (More Than Ready) at the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale in 2009.

“On the back of that, it was very hard to warrant going to another country to bring horses back to South Africa.

“For the first time, our racing’s on the up, we’re back in the game and it can warrant going overseas and purchasing some horses. Yes, we’re coming back into the international market, for sure.”

Dean Kannemeyer, who trains beaten Durban July favourite Green With Envy (Gimmethegreenlight), had been a regular attendee of the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale.

“We’ve bought [South African] Classic winners from there, but we haven’t been back for quite some time,” Kannemeyer said.

“Of course, with the local South Africans it’s more and more difficult to buy with the [weak] rand. Australia’s been very, very good. It was always a great time, so we’re keen to go back.”

When Kannemeyer has bought horses in Australia, he has tended to avoid the sharp sprinting types, an approach fellow trainer Michael Roberts has also employed when making the trip Down Under, his first being in the early 2000s.

“When I first started [training], I had a client I went with to the Magic Millions in Perth. [Expatriate South African trainer] David Payne advised us that it was a shorter way home and cheaper to fly them to South Africa from Perth and that the prices were more realistic for South Africa,” Roberts said.

“At the moment, the exchange rate [doesn’t help]. When we went there, I think it was five to one, which was very reasonable for us.

“My observation when I first went to the Australian sales, you seem to go for your short-coupled horses with speed. I like more the English Classic horse and they were very reasonably priced I thought.”

The relaxing of horse export protocols has played a key role in the rebounding South African industry and South African Equine Health and Protocols managing director Adrian Todd hopes more agreements can be reached.

A determination of the United Kingdom’s audit of South African Horse Sickness protocols is expected to be reached in the near future. A positive outcome would see the UK join the EU while the US also allows the importation of South African horses.

“It’s an opportunity for South Africa to now try and expand negotiations with other potential trade partners and it’s an opportunity for South African horses across the board to now get out of South Africa without the onerous requirements of going through Mauritius which, until this happened, was the only way that you could get out,” Todd said.

“That would be a thing that we would have to engage in negotiations directly with them now. The plan was to always sort out Europe first.

“If I wanted to take a horse to Hong Kong or Australia, I’d send it to Europe first and complete European residency.

“To put it in layman’s terms, all horses after a period of residency, they effectively change nationality, so a horse going to Hong Kong or Australia after required time in Europe would be considered a European horse and it would go under the protocol of Europe to Australia.”

Back-to-back Durban July-winning trainer Crawford agrees that there were positive signs within the local racing industry, but he believes the regulations “to be cast in stone to give us exact protocols on what we can and can’t do”.

“But it’s definitely given the industry a bit more enthusiasm and buoyancy,” Crawford said.

“That’s been shown in the sales results, the changes of racing in the Cape and the increase in prize-money.

“All those things have contributed to a positive vibe.”

Snaith and his cohorts, meanwhile, believe Australian breeders are entitled to be paying close attention to South Africa’s quality mares considering the relative value they offer when it comes to purchase price and the record they have in producing high-class horses.

Three-time Grade 1 winner Via Africa (Var) was imported to Australia from South Africa and she has since produced Golden Rose (Gr 1, 1400m) winner In The Congo (Snitzel) and 2023 Inglis Australian Easter sales-topper Autumn Glow (The Autumn Sun), while the well-travelled champion sprinter National Colour (National Assembly) also ended up in Australia. She has produced Grade 1 winner Rafeef (Redoute’s Choice), top South African two-year-old Mustaaqeem (Redoute’s Choice) and she is also the second dam of this season’s Randwick Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and Doncaster Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Celestial Legend (Dundeel).

Carry On Alice (Captain Al), another champion South African mare, is also domiciled in Australia and since then her third foal by Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) sold for $1.1 million and her fourth, a filly by Arrowfield’s champion stallion, made $775,000 at this year’s Inglis Easter sale.

“What buys a filly or mare here in South Africa compared to what that same money will buy you in the UK or Australia, you can’t compare,” Snaith said.

“I promise you, and I’ve done it the other way around, what you can buy here with let’s say $100,000 … buys some of our best horses here and that amount wouldn’t buy you a below par type of horse in Australia or the UK.”

Trainer Tony Rivalland, who also runs the Summerveld Training Centre and who has bought horses in Australia in the past, backed up Snaith’s assessment of the value of the South African fillies and mares.

He said: “The top mares here offer huge value to the Australian market. You’re buying them at a discounted international price.”

See It Again going down to the start of the Hollywoodbets Durban July (Candiese Lenferna Photography)

Mike Moon (The Citizen)

Punters have regrouped behind See It Again, after abandoning the star chestnut in the late Hollywoodbets Durban July betting.

This week, as soon as nominations came out for the Grade 1 Hong Kong Jockey Club Champions Cup on 28 July, See It Again was made the bookmakers’ favourite for the prestigious season-closer over 1800m at Greyville.

The colt immediately drew betting support and his price was crimped to 28-10.

Michael Roberts’s charge had been on or near top of the betting boards for months before Saturday’s running of the Durban July. However, as the start time for South Africa’s biggest race neared, he drifted alarmingly – from 9-2 to as much as 12-1.

But See It Again – along with Roberts and regular rider Piere Strydom – is nothing if not high class and he ran a commendable July under the top weight of 60kg.

A less-than-perfect passage culminated in Strydom having to snatch up his mount in the closing strides as eventual race winner Oriental Charm cut him off on the inside rail – for which misdeed victorious jockey JP van der Merwe copped a 16-day riding suspension.

See It Again still managed fifth place, less than two lengths behind Oriental Charm.

The latter won’t be present in the Champions Cup, though 10 of the Cup’s 14 early entrants did do battle in the July. Among them are the second, third and fourth finishers – Cousin Casey, Royal Victory and Flag Man.

Apart from a drop in distance from 2200m to 1800m, the big difference this time will be the weight-for-age conditions – very different from the July’s handicap format and generally favouring pure ability.

The Champions Cup forms part of Gold Cup Day, a designated World Pools event that allows TV-watching punters around the globe to bet into gargantuan comingled pools.

Multiple other graded races make up the card.

The World Pool Gold Cup itself, South Africa’s premier long-distance race, has been dropped to Grade 3 status in recent years – thanks to breeders and owners leaning towards sprinters, milers and classic horses – but it remains a treasured part of the racing calendar.

Future Pearl, who finished just behind See It Again in sixth place in the July, was priced up a hot 14-10 in the ante-post market.

La Moohal wins the Gr 3 TAB Sea Cottage Stakes (JC Photos)

Cape Breeders

Maine Chance Farms (Pty) Ltd’s star stallion Vercingetorix came up with his third graded stakes winner in two days when his son La Moohal won the G3 TAB Sea Cottage Stakes (1800m) at Turffontein on Sunday.

Just one day earlier, Vercingetorix sons Oriental Charm and Cousin Casey had finished 1-2 in the G1 Hollywoodbets Durban July, and another son, Cape Eagle, claimed Saturday’s G3 SplashOut 2200 on the same card.

Trained by Tyrone Zackey, three-year-old La Moohal claimed his biggest win to date when he caused a 33-1 upset in the 2024 Sea Cottage Stakes.

Under Philasande Mxoli, the Vercingetorix gelding flew up, from the back of the field, to win Sunday’s’ R250 000 feature race by a length.

Bred by Al Adiyaat, La Moohal has now won three of 11 starts and has earned more than R330 000 in prize money.

Sunday’s winner is out of the Trippi mare Hafla and is thus bred on the same cross as East Cape star Phedra.

La Moohal is the 39th stakes winner for Vercingetorix.

Vercingetorix is also the sire of the progressive Joker Man, who made it five wins in a row when victorious at Turffontein on Sunday. Trained by Johan Janse Van Vuuren, three-year-old Joker Man raced prominently throughout Sunday’s Play Soccer 6,10 and 13 Pinnacle Stakes (1600m) and dug down deep to score by a long neck.

Bred by Narrow Creek Stud, Joker Man has now won five of eight starts and he is yet to finish out of the first four.

Joker Man, who is out of the Western Winter mare Isabelle, was a R300 000 buy from the 2022 August Two Year Old Sale.

Picture: Harlequins Rugby Club paid tribute to Nic this week and displayed the above picture of him.

KZN racing stalwart of decades standing, Dr Nic Labuschagne, passed away last Friday and is also being mourned by the rugby communities in both South Africa and England.

Nic, a former chairman of the Durban Turf Club, played rugby for Natal and also for England while studying dentistry in London.

He earned 5 caps for England in the 1950s.

He played for the famous Harlequins rugby club in England and earned 55 caps for them.

Nic played hooker and earned 30 caps for Natal between 1957 and 1964.

This was an era when rugby and racing seemed to have close ties simply because sportsmen and sports fanatics in those days generally loved racing too.

Nic was a member of the heroic Natal team who on My 31, 1960, earned the provincial team the possibly most famous result in their history, a 6-6 draw with New Zealand All Blacks touring team.

Another member of that famous team, eighth-man Mike Moon, passed away about a month ago.

Mike was a relative through marriage of the Scott brothers, Des and Robin, well known as thoroughbred breeders and owners in KZN.

The 6-6 draw preceded a Springbok-All Black test match which will forever be inexorably linked to South Africa’s greatest horseracing event, the Durban July.

On 25 June 1960 at Ellis Park in Johannesburg the Springboks beat The All Blacks 13-0 with the left wing Hennie van Zyl, who was wearing jersey number 13, scoring both tries.

Incredibly, a racehorse called Left Wing was set to wear saddle cloth number 13 in the July just a week later.

He was also apparently drawn 13 before a few scratchings saw the field reduced to only 14 runners.

Left Wing, owned and trained by Syd Garret and ridden by Percy Cayeux, was backed in to favourite as news of the rugby connection spread.

In surely one of the greatest topical results in the history of racing he won narrowly from Hyacinth.

In Henk Vos’s famous Painting Of The Century, which depicts every one of the first 100 Julys and hangs in the Hollywoodbets Greyville Classic Room today, he chose to paint a picture of Hennie van Zyl walking up the stairs at the back of the grandstand in his number 13 Springbok jersey to depict the 1960 July.

On the 50th anniversary of “The Rugby July” some members of Natal’s 1960 team were tracked down and asked about their memories of “the rugby July.”

Nic Labuschagne was among them and said, “There was a great connection between rugby and racing back in those days with the like of Basil Jenman being chairman of the Jockey Club in Natal and being a great Collegians man.

He added, “I’m not a great betting man so don’t recall having a bet on Left Wing, but am sure I would have put something small on him.”

Mike moon was also interveiewed and recalled, “We went to the July every year back then. We used to picnic in the car park area. It was tremendous fun.”

Nic was chairman of the Durban Turf Club from 1991 to 1993 and Gold Circle wrote the following tribute to him after his passing:

A former steward of the local executive of The Jockey Club and past chairman of the Durban Turf Club, Dr Nick Labuschagne (93) passed away on Friday evening after a lengthy illness.

Good friend Bill Lambert said that Labuschagne was one of the doyens of KZN racing as he was passionate about the sport and was one of the pillars of the industry in the province.

He served as a steward and chairman of the Durban Turf Club and according to Lambert was one of the best chairmen ever, as he was scrupulously fair. He was also a member of the local executive the then Jockey Club, now the National Horseracing Authority.

Nic Labuschagne was also a prolific and consistent owner and raced many horse and still did at the time of his passing with trainers Wendy Whitehead and Michael Roberts.

His best horse was probably Peri Peri trained by the late Tony Furness and was one of the favourites for the Bull Brand Jockey’s International of that year.

He will be sadly missed, as will his famous colours of maroon, light blue braces, armbands and cap.

Labuschagne was also a passionate rugby supporter and gained an Oxford Blue in the sport. He also played hooker for England and Natal. His grandson Pat Lambie played flyhalf for the Springboks.

He is survived by his two sons Nicholas and Kim, and daughters Kaz and Glenda, and 13 grandsons.

The stewards and staff of Gold Circle have extended their sincere condolences to his family and he will be sadly missed by all in KZN racing.

Vandeek loses his unbeaten record as Inisherin runs out an impressive winner of the Betfred Supports Jack Berry House Sandy Lane Stakes at Haydock (Sky Sports Racing)

Harry Wilson (Racing Post)

Jumps jockeys Thomas Costello (Ireland) and Jack Andrew (England), pictured from left to right above, are both 193cm (6 foot 3.3 inches) tall and are said to be the tallest jockeys in the world.