The Real Prince was the first Hollywoodbets Duban July winner the three-times champion sire Gimmethegreenlight had produced
The Hollywoodbets Durban July is always the highlight of the South African horseracing season, but as it is a handicap the winner often doesn’t get an Equus Award.
However, the winner will remain in racing fans’ memory banks forever, so in the season’s aftermath some space should be allocated to this year’s winner The Real Prince as well as to trainer Dean Kannemeyer, jockey Craig Zackey and owner-breeder Lady Christine Laidlaw.
The first ingredients a Hollywoodbets Durban July winner needs is class.
Lady Christine Laidlaw as well as her racing manager Jehan Malherbe and trainer Dean Kannemeyer must all take bows for that score.
Malherbe and Kannemeyer identified The Real Prince’s mother Real Princess (Trippi) and Laidlaw was willing to splash out a Sale-topping R2.7 million to secure her.
She has been a wonderful broodmare, as is well documented, and she was named Equus Champion Broodmare at this year’s awards.
The trio also identified Gimmethegreenlight as the stallion to send Real Princess to and Laidlaw boarded her mares at the top class and professional Varsfontein Stud, where Real Princess and her foals were always going to get the best care money can buy.
The next ingredient for a July winner is to be well handicapped and Kannemeyer and Malherbe ensured that would be the case by putting The Real Prince away afer his eye-catching running on fourth in the Gr 2 IOS Drill Hall Stakes over 1400m.
That decision also included their belief that the horse would stay the 2200m trip of the July and, despite not many pundits agreeing with them on that score, they were ultimately proven correct. Sufficient stamina capacity is a vital ingredient of a Hollywoodbets Durban July winner.
Their decision to not have a race for nearly three months in the build up to the July also entailed the horse having a particularly good trainer and Kannemeyer proved it again by winning his fourth Hollywoodbets Durban July, despite having to get the horse fit enough only through the tracks and facilities of Summerveld and having the official July gallop as the finishing touch.
Luck is one of the biggest ingredients and the first bit of luck for The Real Prince was that he landed a low draw of five, which was going to be a bonus for a horse who had proven speed but was not proven over further than a mile.
He would need to be able to relax from a long way out and that draw gave him a good chance to do so.
It is usually essential to be within striking distance turning into the short 450m straight in the July, because there are no bad horses in the July.
Even with a strong pace, making up a lot of ground on top horses at this course is very difficult as was shown in 1987 when Model Man never looked like catching Bush Telegraph despite an incredible effort to do so.
Even a champion like Dynasty needed to be not more than three lengths back at the top of the straight to catch another champion in Yard-arm.
A horse thus needs adequate gate-speed and early pace.
The Real Prince broke on terms and his early pace proved to be a valuable asset.
Of course an essential ingredient is a good jockey and Craig Zackey made a crucial move early. He eased a touch and was able to dive behind the two horses drawn three and four and he then used The Real Prince’s early pace to secure the rail just behind the horses drawn one and two, Oriental Charm and Madison Valley.
However, the next bit of luck that played out was the slow pace set by Oriental Charm.
Off a faster pace The Real Prince might have been shuffled further back than he wanted to be as Madison Valley is not normally a handy type.
Furthermore, The Real Prince’s sprinting speed was going to be a big asset in the dash for home off this slow pace.
A good temperament is another asset and The Real Prince relaxed beautifully under Zackey, who is known for his good hands.
The jockey and luck play a big part in the straight.
A split second decision must be made on which route to take to the finish and that can be the difference between winning and losing.
The luck factor is that the gaps must open at the right time.
Zackey made the wise decision to switch off the rail coming up the hill towards the straight.
It was going to be important to get a clear run in the relatively short straight off that slow pace and a dream gap opened, allowing Zackey to switch The Real Prince all the way to the outside of the leading vanguard.
He had fresh air in front of him as early as the 400m mark.
The next essential is the horse must have a good turn of foot (acceleration), followed by the ability and courage to stay all the way to the line.
The Real Prince has an exceptional turn of foot and this enabled him to fetch the favourite Eight On Eighteen by the 200m mark.
He then had the resolve and the stamina capacity to see off the fight back of Eight On Eighteen, although the bit that probably played the biggest part in that eventuality was him being well handicapped. He was 2,5kg better off then weight for age with Eight On Eighteen and hence the latter, who was also a three-time Gr 1 winner over 2000m, put in a better performance on paper and was a deserved winner of the Equus Middle Distance Champion award.
When looking at all the factors that are involved in winning the country’s most iconic horse race, it is little wonder that it has the reputation of being an enormously difficult race to win.
