Turf Talk Newsletter – 23 June, 2026

The big question before the R10 million Hollywoodbets Durban July Final Field Announcement and Draw Ceremony at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Tuesday morning was whether the fancied entry Regulation, who had been single figures in the betting markets, would make the top 18 and connections and supporters were left on tenterhooks until the last minute as 17 horses were on the board without his name appearing.

The Justin Snaith-trained horse’s name then appeared, although the connections of the Erico Verdonese-traineed Choisaanada must have feared the worst as the horses are revealed in weight order and when they went past the 58,5kg weight without his name appearing the writing was on the wall.

Choisaanada is merit rated 121, while Regulation is merit rated 106 and the latter is thus 1kg under sufferance.

However, considering Regulation beat Zeitz by 3,20 lengths when winning the Gr 3 Ownpay Peninsula Handicap over 1800m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth and faces the latter on the same terms in the July he looks to have a chance of winning the race.

Choisaanada on the other hand, finished a neck ahead of The Ultimate King at level weights in the Gr 2 Colorado King Stakes and Regulation beat the latter in the WSB 1900 by just over a neck when receiving 6kg. Regulation will only receive 4,5kg from The Ultimate King in the July, but would have received 6,5kg from Choisaanada, so that collateral formline would justify Regulation’s position in the final field.

Nevertheless, Choisaanada’s connections are likely to feel aggrieved as he was three positions ahead of Regulation on the final log.

On a brighter note the Australian-based sensation Zac Lloyd will be aboard Regulation. He will attempt to break the trend of his legendary father, the former Durban-based Jeff Lloyd, who finished third in this race no fewer than nine times without ever winning, although he did finish second in his last July ride in 2018. Regulation landed a plum draw of two.

There were no other contentious issues in the Final Field Announcement.

The race favourite is the James Crawford-trained Star Major who is part of a fairytale story as the Querari colt will be ridden by French woman Mickaelle Michel, who traveled out here with the hope of riding winners and enjoying the experience but never in her wildest dreams would she have believed that she would be riding the favourite in South Africa’s greatest race just seven months after arriving.

James Crawford was assistant to his father Brett when they landed the July in successive years, 2023 and 2024, and will be out to win a first July under his own license.

Three-year-old Gr 1 Daily News 2000 winner Star Major jumps from a well nigh perfect draw of four and will realise a longheld dream for Durban-born part-owner Ravi Naidoo if he were to win the race. Ravi went close two years ago with Cousin Casey and will be hoping to go one better.

That 2024 race was of course won by Oriental Charm, who was part-owned by Greg and Gina Bortz and this year the couple part-own the Snaith-trained Native Ruler and they are sole owners of Regulation.

Greg was also Durban-born and another Durban-born owner who will be out to realise a longheld dream will be Ravi Padayachee, the chief owner of the Gareth van Zyl-trained King Pelles. Ravi pulled a draw of 17 for King Pelles.

Preshalin and Jayson Murugasa, owners of the Mike and Mathew de Kock-trained Aladdin’s Lamp, are also passionate Durban-born owners.

Mike de Kock has won five Julys before and will be out to win a first together with son Mathew and they will have to do it from the widest draw of all as Aladdin’s Lamp drew 18.

An interesting fact of the field is that following on from no female runners in the race in 2024 and only one last year, there are no fewer than five female runners this year and one reserve.

The two most fancied of them, Wish List and Mocha Blend, drew seven and 13 respectively.

Wish List will be one of five horses representing Justin Snaith, who will be out to win a sixth July. She will be out to give a first July win to Andrew Fortune, who will become the oldest jockey to win the race at the age of 59 if she does it. Fortune pulled his own draw of seven and was thrilled with it.

Among the Snaith-trained horses is the topweight Legal Counsel, who only just failed to become a Gr 1 wfa winner when pipped in the Hollywoobets Gold Challenge over 1600m last time and he also came second in Cape Town’s greatest race The Gr 1 wfa WSB Met over 2000m. He will be ridden by Callan Murray and is drawn well in five.

The locally-trained horses in the field are the Stuart Ferrie-trained Gladatorian, the Frank Robinson-trained Mocha Blend, the Gareth van Zyl-trained King Pelles and the Peter Muscutt-trained pair I Salute You and Isivivane.

There are eight Cape-trained horses in the top 18 and five Highved-trained horses and the two reserves are both Highveld-trained horses.

Tammy and Candice Dawson will be out to become the third female trainers to win the July and have the mare Minogue incolved. She will be ridden by Gavin Lerena.

The 18 incumbent runners include five three-year-olds, nine four-year-olds, three five-year-olds and one six-year-old and the two reserves consist of a four-year-old and a three-year-old.

Three jockeys have been flown in to ride in the race, Zac Llloyd, Chad Schofield, who rides King Pelles, and Mark Du Plessis, who rides I Salute You.

Only five jockeys in the race have won a July before, with Richard Fourie having three wins to his name, while each of Gavin Lerena, Kabelo Matsunyane, JP van der Merwe and last year’s winning rider Craig Zackey have won the big race once apiece.

The weight structure this year has topweight at 62kg and bottom weight at 52kg and for the first time in many years it is just a straight handicap without any allowances or limitations.

There is only one horse in the top 18 who is officially under sufferance and that is Regulation, who is 1kg under sufferance, although the second reserve runner Curious Girl will be 4kg under sufferance if she gets in.

With a stake that doubles from last year to R10 million it is going to be a humdinger!

Expert Eye’s son Mezcala produced a devastating late burst to win the Buckingham Palace Stakes over seven furlongs at the Royal Ascot meeting under Tom Marquand (Picture: Mathea Kelley)  

Paardeberg Stud’s Gr 1 Breeders Cup Mile-winning stallion Expert Eye has had continued success through his overseas progeny since departing from the U.K. and the former Juddmonte-owned stallion can now count himself among the select stallions in the world who have sired more than one Royal Ascot winner.

His Jack Channon-trained four-year-old gelding son Mezcala started 9/2 joint favourite for the Buckingham Palace Stakes over seven furlongs last Thursday carrying 9 stone 1 off an OR (Ofiicial Rating) of 94. He dwelt from draw 30 of 31 losing about a length. Tom Marquand then sat on him patiently behind a crowd of horses who had come over to the outside and in the closing stages his turn of foot and finishing speed were so powerful that he was able to easily burst through the narrow gap available and win by a neck.

Expert Eye’s five-year-old daughter Snellen had earlier run a fine race in the Gr 2 Duke Of Cambridge Stakes over about a mile (7 furlongs and 213 yards). She won the Listed Chesham Stakes for two-year-olds over seven furlongs at the Royal Ascot meeting in 2023 and last year she finished second, beaten a length, in the Kensington Palace Stakes over a straight mile at the Royal Ascot meeting. She started 16/1 in the Duke Of Cambridge last Wednsday and after being shuffled right back before the turn she ran on well in the straight to finish a 5,25 length fifth.

Expert Eye is himself a Royal Asccot winner having won the Gr 3 Jersey Stakes over seven furlongs in 2018.

The Jersey Stakes was interestingly won this year by a horse Gaynor Rupert bred and owns together with Coolmore, a fine looking specimen by St. Mark’s Basilica called Thesecretadversary.

Paardeberg Stud’s new stallion Kikkuli, a Kingman half-brother to Frankel, was unlucky not to win the Jersey Stakes too, losing it on the headbob in 2024.

Expert Eye is an immensely strongly built horse and stands over a lot of ground.

Paardeberg Stud report him to be producing strong, athletic individuals.

They will hopefully inherit his fine temperament too. He is a calm and relaxed individual and is thus very easy to handle.

His first crop are currently weanlings.

He is a proven sire of quality international performers and it is unlikely Juddmonte would have ever let him go had his career not coincided with the like of the one and only Frankel, Kingman, Oasis Dream and Bated Breath.

They only let Expert Eye go when his first crop were halfway through their three-year-old year, so he hardly had an opportunity to prove himself, and he was let go to make room for Chaldean, a son of Frankel who won the Gr 1 Dewhurst Stakes and the annual first British classic race of the season, the Gr 1 2000 Guineas.

Expert Eye’s sire Acclamation is proving to be a noteworthy Sire Of Sires as his son Dark Angel (Champion Sire in the UK in 2025) is the leading sire of sprinters in Europe this year, while his sons Mehmas, Harry Angel and Aclaim are also prominent on that list.

Expert Eye himself is proving versatile as a sire.

He has produced the like of Gr 2 winner over seven furlongs Witness Stand, but also the like of Beset, a dual Listed winner from a mile-and-two-furlongs to a mile-and-a-half.

Another noticeable trend with Expert Eye’s active progeny is how often they are able to run and their longevity. He obviously produces very sound individuals.

This good looking bay stallion’s profile is being enhanced rapidly and he should win a lot of support from breeders in South Africa.

Hollywood Racing’s racing manager Anthony Delpech pulls draw one for their runner, the Peter Muscutt-trained Isivivane (Candiese Lenferna Photography) 

In the spirit of transparency the votes cast by the Hollywoodbets Durban July expert final field panelists have been released for the public to see.

The first criteria considered is the number of panelists who include the horse in their top 20.

This is the reason Choisaanada was only made a reserve.

Only three panelists included him in the top 20, while all five included Regulation.

Interestingly, Hazy Dazy was put in the top 20 by only four panelists, despite her high position in the final log and the prominent position given to her by two of the panelists.

The big-race selection panel was under the chairmanship of Race Coast’s KZN Racing Executive Raf Sheik and it included National Racing Bureau Manager Aveen Sewpersad, Race Coast’s Head of Racing for the Western Cape, Kurt Felix, 4Racing’s Head of Racing Operations, Gabriel Soma and vastly experienced operator consultant Luciano Passerini. They were under the guidance of NHA Chief handicapper, Lennon Maharaj.

The voting table can be viewed below:

The Candice Bass-trained What A Winter filly Poetic Princess made it three wins of the trot when winning under Sean Veale on the Hollywoodbets Greyville poly on Monday (Picture: Julia Marnewick)

Cape Breeders

Fresh off enjoying success in the US with his champion son Isivunguvungu, Drakenstein Stud’s in-form sire What A Winter enjoyed another good day at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Monday.

Not only did What A Winter come up with two winners on Monday, but the champion son of Western Winter is also broodmare sire of Come Together, winner of the first race at Hollywoodbets Greyville.

What A Winter’s four-year-old daughter Poetic Princess made it three wins in a row when she won Monday’s Hollywoodbets Bright Future Class 5 (F and M) (1200m).

Under Sean Veale, the Candice Bass trained filly showed plenty of heart in fighting out a tight finish, which saw Poetic Princess score by a neck.

Bred by Maine Chance Farms, Poetic Princess races for Elleke Hospitality (Pty) Ltd T/A Owloon Horses.

Now a four time winner, Poetic Princess is out of the Captain Al mare Penny Royal.

Her four time G1 winning sire What A Winter is also the sire of Summer Winter, who ran out a game winner of Monday’s Join The Race Coast Turf Club Today! Class 4 (F and M) (1000m).

Under a well timed ride from Keagan De Melo, the Adam Azzie trained four-year-old got up to win a shade cosily by just over half a length.
Bred by Drakenstein Stud, Monday’s winner races for the Wernars Family.

Summer Wind, who is out of the Trippi mare Bella Summer, was winning for a second time when she won on Monday.

Her sire has enjoyed a wonderful run this season, with What A Winter’s four black type winners including G1 South African Fillies Sprint winner Asiye Phambili and impressive G2 Allan Robertson Fillies Championship/G3 TAB Pretty Polly Stakes winner Get Up.

Racing TV

Andre Fabre “firmly against” allowing geldings to run in the Arc

Leading French trainer Andre Fabre is “firmly against” the proposal to open up the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe to geldings from 2027.

Board members at France Galop voted for the change at a meeting on Monday, according to online racing daily Jour De Galop. The European Pattern Committee will now need to agree to the change for it to be ratified.

Fabre, who has won Europe’s premier middle-distance contest a record eight times – most recently in 2019 with Waldgeist – is not a fan of the proposed change to the race conditions.

“I am firmly against it,” Fabre told the Press Association. “It is just a proposition at this stage, but I cannot see any benefit.
“It is true that the last few winners have not gone on to be successful stallions, apart from Sea The Stars (2009), but we need more stallions not less.

“The Arc is always a big field so that is not the reason and will agree that a gelding is much easier to train than a colt – it is an advantage.

“It is a bit like the Derby at Epsom. Some of the (Derby winning) sires have not been the greatest recently, but it is all cycles.

“I’m a big fan of tradition and do not like to break it without a serious reason. Just because there are one or two horses horses who are better gelded, it would be a shame.”

High-profile recent examples of top-class geldings who may have run in the race had they been allowed include Francis-Henri Graffard’s pair of Goliath and Calandagan, with the latter ending last year as the world’s highest rated racehorse after winning the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, the King George and the Champion Stakes at Ascot and becoming the first overseas runner in 20 years to lift the Japan Cup.

In theory, Calandagan could therefore belatedly get his shot at Arc glory as a six-year-old for owners Aga Khan Studs, who despite his ineligibility won last year’s Arc anyway with the brilliant colt Daryz.

“As the owners of Calandagan, obviously it was a bit frustrating that the big race he would go for in France wasn’t open to him, but as it turned out we won the race with Daryz and it meant Calandagan went to international targets, so in a global sense it wasn’t something that impacted us too much,” said Nemone Routh, French racing manager and director for the Aga Khan Studs.

“The 2027 Arc is a long way off and he has shown he doesn’t really like testing ground. If he’s still in great form and happy and he’s thriving obviously it would have to come into consideration, but it is a long way away.”

Romantic Gladiator looks capable of overcoming a six point raise and winning the last race (Picture: HKJC)

At The Races tipster Tim Carroll landed his fifth-straight Nap at the weekend and is back with Wednesday’s best bets for the Happy Valley meeting.

This Wednesday sees a competitive nine-race card from Happy Valley getting underway at 12H40 and the feature of the meeting is race 9, The Class 3 King’s Road Handicap, over 1 mile, offering prize money of more than £200,000.

Now onto this week’s selections.

Click here for a comprehensive guide to the race meeting

Wild Fig has been tipped to win the last race (Pauline Herman Photography)

Trevor Reid’s formguides and selections for the Wednesday meeting on the Fairview poly

RACE 1

NEW DAY made good late progress on debut. That experience should have done her the world of good and she is the one to beat. ETERNAL SPIRIT is knocking on the door and should be right there at the finish. AMERICAN PETAL fell on debut but was not disgraced when fourth last time out so could earn. KITANA’S JOY showed some improvement last time out and has a place chance. PROSPER’S GIRL and SKIP THE LINE are capable of improvement.

RACE 2

A very open looking race. GIMMETHEGOLD is in good shape and could be ready for a winning turn. KALEESH CYBORG returns from a break and a change of trainer. He tries the Polytrack and could be a real threat. LOVE FROM AFAR makes his local debut after changing trainers and would not be a surprise winner. WALK RIGHT IN ran well on local debut and should have more to offer. RIP WHEELER, GREEN POINT and JAZZ AWAY are all capable of getting into the mix as well.

RACE 3

An interesting and open leg of the Pick 6. LOTUS SILK is probably the best horse in the race but her best form has been on the grass. She may still win this. LADY BOMBER returns on the surface of her best form and has claims. HAZE AND SMOKE is better than her last run and could make all the running. NORTH STAR and DUPONT EMERALD have ability and should be included in all Pick 6 permutations. TOO LATE MY MATE was not disgraced on local debut and has a winning chance. DESERT CLOUD is a lot better than what she showed last time out and is another to consider.

RACE 4

MADE TO MEASURE had seven starts without winning on the Highveld. She has been consistent of late and perhaps the change to the Polytrack will get a victory out of her. MATTER OF TRUST makes her local debut and improvement should be forthcoming. SALAGADOOLA is not reliable but can contest the finish. FLEUR DE VILLE seems better than a modest last run and could improve. GUTSY BABY and CAUGHTUBYSURPRISE have improved and could earn. EXPLOSIVE GIFT looked a very unlucky loser last time out and could go one better.

RACE 5

THIS OR THAT was an impressive debut winner. The second that day is a more than useful yardstick so this filly cold have races in hand. DANCING IN WINTER has a place chance this course and distance. MIDNIGHT MUSIC has struggled of late but might earn minor money. MY AMI BEACH showed improvement last time out and could place. POWER OF TIGER quickened nicely to win on local debut and could have more to offer. BENEATH THE MOON has a difficult draw to overcome but might play a role. VOORSMAAKIE is yet another that can get involved.

RACE 6

FRENCH FLAME was a very easy winner on this surface last time out. From a good draw he may follow up. RAVILIOUS has had a very good season and could contest the finish yet again. CHERRY OH BABY likes the Polytrack and is clearly not out of it. DAS GUTE and EL ROMIACHI are not reliable but are capable of scoring. CHARLIE MALONE is often in the placings and can earn. BLAME IT ON ME is better than his last run and can bounce back to win. PALANCAR and HOSPICES DE BEAUNE are two others that are worth considering for large Pick 6 perms.

RACE 7

ONCIDIUM is not reliable but she has been in good form of late and could score. CAPTAIN’S JET needed her local debut. She is capable of winning at this low level. ARABIAN RED has won four times on this surface and does have Richard Fourie in the irons. ALEX MILLER is consistent but is battling to win. That can also be said of FLOWER FESTIVAL. SAY A WISH makes her local debut and tries the Polytrack. NAUTICAL LANDING, RED LHASA and CHRONICLESOFNANIA are all capable of earning.

RACE 8

WILD FIG is very consistent. He is, however, battling for a second win. From a good draw Richard Fourie will give him every chance. TRIP TO PEACE won on local debut and could have more to offer. ALADO’S PRIDE was unlucky last time out and can earn. GARDEN SUN and DONNY’S BOY are in good shape and can make the frame again. SAN QUINTIN and MONT TREMBLANT are recent winners that could trouble the judge. DARLING GIRL has won her last two starts and could complete a hat-trick.