Atticus Finch pictured wining the Gr 1 Betway Summer Cup (JC Photos).
Alec Laird will be out to win a second Durban July on Saturday and if he does win the Hollywoodbets-sponsored event then the 29 years between his first and second July victories will be a record gap.
He won it with London News in the big race’s centenary renewal and is represented by another horse with a reading theme this year as his runner Atticus Finch is named after a lead character in the celebrated novel, To Kill A Mockingbird.
Alec said, “Atticus Finch has picked up at the right time. His programme has gone according to plan. I think he is in better shape than he was for the Met and he is certainly in better shape than he was when he was 4th in the Champions Challenge up in Jo’Burg. He’s in a better place than he was for both of those races, so I am hoping for improvement on those two runs.”
Atticus Finch arrived at Summerveld on Sunday.
Alec explained, “He’s not a great traveller. When he went to Cape Town, he lost 20kg and he battled to get back to his racing weight. He wasn’t at his best.”
Alec was asked how the five-year-old Master Of My Fate gelding had traveled on this occasion and he replied, “He travelled ok. He’s bright. I mean last year when he came down for the WSB 1900 he walked off the float on the Friday and he looked dull, he was hanging his head and he ran accordingly. His next run last year he ran second in the consolation, but he came down about a week earlier and he ran a good race. So we did the same this year. He lost a little bit of weight, but he’s put it back on and he’s bright.”
Alec added, “We’ve got no excuses this time, if he’s not good enough, he’s not good enough. No excuses, as I say, we’re not saying, ‘Oh, I wish the race was another week or two later and we need to do something’, it is all in place for it to happen. I don’t know if four is a good draw, if horses come around you and shuffle you back then it’s not great, but hopefully that doesn’t happen.”
Atticus Finch likes to be handy.
Alec revealed, “When he won the Summer Cup, Calvin said, ‘I’m going to try and lead’, and he got smacked out of the race and he still won. He got bumped twice and he had to take a position there.”
Alec continued, “All we want is a reasonable pace. Every year people say, ‘Oh there’s going to be a pace in the July’, but there’s never any pace, because everybody’s trying to win, even thepacemakers are trying to win, and nobody’s prepared to sacrifice their horse in the July. If you think back to Bartie Leisher on Occult (1986) he was told to go, and he said, ‘I will go at my speed!’ But we’ll see.”
Alec concluded, “As long as there is luck in running he is a reasonable bet for the first four.”
Alec has Tenjiku running in the Gr 2 Omoda Golden Horseshoe over 1400m and this Erik The Red gelding comes off a 1,45 length fourt to Malmesbury Missile in the Listed Hollywoodbets Sharks Gatecrasher Stakes over 1400m.
He is drawn seven and Alec said, “He ran a good race last time, but he missed the jump and he was very green, so if he can improve on that, he’ll be in the money. It’s very hard to assess the strength of the race because they’re two-year-olds, there’s a lot of problems in two-year-olds and they change, but I think he’s a worthy runner, it’s worth taking a chance.”
Alec also runs the three-year-old Rafeef gelding Sunset Riot in the Listed Premier Gateway International Handicap over 1600m and he said, “He comes from a long layoff (ten-and-a-half months), but he’s a nice little horse. I think he may be just short of one gallop, but he’s not a heavy horse and he could be thereabouts, but that’s a very competitive race.”
