Note To Self stretches late to get the better of stable companion Wish List (Picture: Race Coast)
Going into Saturday’s Hollywoodbets Durban July there were four jockeys who had ridden four or more July winners and two trainers who had trained six or more July winners and this list of six names proved that there is nothing lucky about winning Africa’s greatest race as all of jockeys Anton Marcus, with a record five wins, jockeys Piere Strydom, Anthony Delpech and Harold “Tiger” Wright, with four wins apiece, and trainers Syd Laird and Terrance Millard, with seven and six wins respectively, were all true greats in their own right.
The pair who have now joined them, Justin Snaith and Richard Fourie, can now also be called greats of the game and their respective performances in this year’s July renewal provide good examples of why they deserve that accolade.
Justin Snaith brought Note To Self back from a below par run in the Daily News 2000, which he came out of with a temperature, to be at his absolute peak for Saturday and he was then given one of the best July rides in recent times by Fourie.
Snaith landed a second July exacta, although the last time he did that in 2018 he also got the trifecta and fifth place too for the most dominant finish by one trainer in July history.
On Saturday Note To Self jumped from the draw many believe to be the best draw in the race, barrier eleven, because it is the first stall in the second bank of stalls and the tyres between the two stalls create a sizeable gap between barrier positions ten and eleven.
Fourie made good use of this advantage, using the room available after jumping to sit still and get into a rhythm.
He then found a nice position with cover.
Some might have felt he was too far back, but Fourie had an ace up his sleeve.
The big long-striding Futura gelding had got the decent pace he needed and now just needed to be produced at the right time.
Fourie began a surging run before turning for home, realising that the big bay was a horse with a big action who would need a long resolute run in as opposed to one who was able to turn it on in the last 300m or so. Fourie went way wide during this move, but that ensured a clear passage as well as a clear path down the straight.
Meanwhile, the Snaith-trained favourite Wish List had enjoyed the run of the race. Andrew Fortune had eased her over from draw seven and managed to find cover in a handy position. She ended up sitting in a one out and one back position with cover behind Choisaanada, who was on the quarters of the pacemaker, the Snaith-trained topweight Legal Counsel.
Wish List burst through a gap and hit the front at the 300m mark and it looked like a fairytale story was going to have a dream ending as 59-year-old Andrew Fortune looked to have the race for the taking.
However, Note To Self was beginning to eat up the ground with his big action.
Richard Fourie’s class as a jockey was not only seen in the early move he made for home, but also by the fact that he made two deft changes of whiphand in the final 200m. The first might have been to straighten Note To Self by changing his stick from left to right as he was lugging in towards King Pelles. The second was after he had cleared King Pelles. Note To Self had been looking a touch one-paced at that stage but he now had ample room to use his big stride to its maximum and to do the natural thing of shifting towards the horse he was trying to beat. Fourie’s change of stick to the left helped him with this cause, although it was a late change of leg that ensured victory for the big horse as he found extra when it really counted.
The two stick changes of hand had been done while rousting his mount and was in the final stages of a R10 million race and yet he had remained cool, calm and collected.
Note To Self’s victory clinched a first July victory for Varsfontein Stud as breeders.
It also ensured that Snaith and Fourie had become the most prolific partnership in July history, the first trainer-jockey combination to clinch four Julys together.
It was a gallant effort by Wish List to lose by just a quarter of a length.
Note To Self is owned by Jonathan Bloch, Jonathan Snaith and Nancy Hossack, while Bloch and Hossack own Wish List together. Bloch and Hossack thus clinched a rare July exacta as owners.
The five-year-old King Pelles ran a fine race to finish a 1,55 length third under visiting jockey Chad Schofield. He could be regarded as a touch unlucky too as he was sitting behind Wish List approaching the straight, but lost this position to Gladatorian, who switched outward off the rail. So King Pelles thus began his bid for home further back that he might have been and had to come wider than he would have been.
Viva’s Liberte ran on strongly from midfield and had he not been short of room late he might have made it a first and third for the two sophomore males in the race, members of a crop whom many had said were overrated. Luckily those who said so are not handicappers as the race was dominated by those two together with the only sophomore female who had directly measurable form with them, the Cape Derby winner Wish List.
Note To Self and Wish List had also finished in the exacta positions in the Gr 1 Lucky Fish Cape Derby, but in a different order. However, Wish List had received a weight for age gender allowance of 2,5kg in the Cape Derby whereas she only received half-a-kilogram from Note To Self in the July, so she put up the best weight for age performance of the race.
Isivivane ended up in the box seat in the running from pole position and stayed on for a 3,20 length fifth.
Native Ruler was a 3,95 length sixth off a 119 rating last year and a 3,90 length sixth this year off a 121 rating, while Gladatorian was a five length seventh off a 127 rating last year and remarkably he was a five length seventh off a 127 rating this year. That pair provided a link to last year’s race and proved that the three-year-old winner this year had performed just as well as the older horse winner from last year.
Zeitz was fancied by many but was caught wide in stages and in any case the form from his Betgames Cup Trial win did not stand up the whole day, including from the runner up I Salute You, who ran second last in the July.
Mocha Blend was ninth and Choisaanada tenth.
The stakes money was split as per below:
Stakes: 1st: R5,750,000 | 2nd: R1,500,000 | 3rd: R750,000 | 4th: R420,000 | 5th: R230,000 | 6th: R150,000 | 7th: R140,000 | 8th: R130,000 | 9th: R120,000 | 10th: R110,000
