King Pelles wins the Tote Derby. (Candiese Lenferna Photography).
Gareth van Zyl’s six-timer on the 16th of June saw him pulling clear in what had been a keen tussle for the KZN Trainers Championship, but the pressure is on again with about four weeks left of the season as perrenial rival Garth Puller is breathing down his neck.
Gareth is on 46 wins for the season in his bid to retain the title, while Garth Puller, who was champion in 2019/2020, 2020/2021 and 2022/2023, five behind on 41 wins.
Gareth, who was champion in 2021/2022 and last season, 2023/2024, could increase his lead on Saturday at the Hollywoodbets Durban July meeting through the crack Duke Of Marmalade stayer King Pelles.
This Drakenstein Stud-bred gelding followed his Gr 3 Glorious Goodwood Chairman Cup victory over 2500m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on L’Ormarins King’s Plate day by winning the recent Gr 3 Tote Derby over 2400m at Hollywoodbets Scottsville.
On Saturday the progressive four-year-old takes part in the Gr 3 Durban Gold Vase over 3000m.
Gareth’s father and assistant trainer Gavin van Zyl said, “He’s got to carry 60kg andover 3000m there’s a couple of horses with 50kg, so it’s a type of race where you could get spooked by one of those horses carrying 50kg, 10kg isa lot of difference over 3000m. But the horse is well and he stays well. He won a good Derby race where he was going away at the finish. The pace of the race is going to be quite important, because I think there’s quite a lot of speed in the race.So they’re going to be going at a decent pace.I think it’s going to be a proper, true run 3000m race, so it going to be a true test for King Pelles and if he can come through this, we can really believe we’ve got a very good stayer on our hands.”
King Pelles ultimate target for the season is the Gold Cup.
Gavin said Gareth’s other two runners on Hollywoodbets Durban July day, Convocation in Race 2 and Tomyris in Race 11, both had each way chances.
Meanwhile, Garth Puller only has one reserve runner on the day.
