Green With Envy finds extra to fend off a gallant Flag Man, who came into the race having no chance on paper, but the support he received in the betting proved to be a better indication of his chances (Candiese Lenferna Photography)

The handicappers have handed Green With Envy a four point raise for his Gr 1 Daily News 2000 win and that sees him soar up to 127, meaning he is now the third highest rated horse among the Hollywoodbets Durban July entries.

The Daily News runner up Flag Man might have been handed the biggest raise in South African history, a 34 point raise from 92 to 126, which he earned by finishing a head behind Green With Envy.

Barbaresco, who was a 2,60 length third, was raised 13 points to 122.

Pure Predator, who was a 5,30 length fourth, remains on 119, which suggests he was made the line horse.

He looked to be the obvious line horse. Pure Predator finished a two length fourth in the Gr 1 TAB SA Classic over 1800m, a 0,25 length second in the Gr 1 TAB SA Derby over 2450m and he then won the Gr 2 TAB Colorado King Stakes over 2000m in comfortable style. Those results point to him being a consistent middle distance to staying horse at the highest level and he was thus a stand out to be used as line horse.

Mid Winter Wind, who was a 5,60 length fifth, remains on 116, Hluhluwe, who was a 6,80 length sixth, has been dropped one point to 116, Hotarubi, who was a 6,95 length seventh, remains on 116, William Iron Arm, who was a 7,10 length eighth, has been dropped three points to 114 and the tailed off The Grey King, whose saddle slipped, remains on 96.

The handicappers might have treated the event as a distance further than 2000m due to the soft going, because reading the race literally as a 2000m event and using Pure Predator as the line horse would have earned Green With Envy a 130 merit rating.

If the race is treated as a 2001m to 2400m race, then Green With Envy would have been given a five point raise on a literal reading with Pure Predator as line horse.

However, they have found a way to give him one point less.

All will be revealed in the NHA’s Handicapping Ratings Update Press Release tomorrow.

Nevertheless, the changes have caused a shake up to the Hollywoodbets Durban July weights.

Using the 132-rated See It Again as topweight, Green With Envy will now have to carry 55.5kg as things stand.

Flag Man will have to carry 55kg.

Barbaresco sneaks into the handicap off his 122 rating carrying the bottom weight for a three-year-old male of 53kg.

The entries who are in the handicap at present (i.e. not under sufferance) are:

See It Again 60kg

Main Defender 59.5kg

Dave The King 57kg

Royal Victory56.5kg

Winchester Mansion 56kg

Royal Aussie 56kg

Green With Envy 55,5kg

Cousin Casey 55,5kg

Flag Man 55kg

Without Question 54kg (bottom weight but in the handicap)

Barbaresco 53kg (bottom weight but in the handicap)

All of the rest of the entries will, as things stand, carry the minimum weight for their category i.e.54kg for males of four-years and older, 53kg for females of four-years and older, 53kg for male three-year-olds, 52kg for female three-year-olds and all of them will be under sufferance by varying amounts.

Saturday’s race has caused an anomaly or two.

For example Barbaresco is now merit rated two points higher than Purple Pitcher, who beat him by over six lengths in the Gr 1 TAB SA Classic.

However, handicappers must address the race at hand and finishing positions in previous races become largely immaterial. After all, Barbaresco reversed form with Pure Predator from the SA Classic by 7,2 lengths.

The way the Daily News result was structured was just what Dean Kannemeyer did not want.

Green With Envy was the highest rated horse in the race and it looked likely that by coming from off the pace in his usual manner there would be a blanket finish, which would put him in no danger of getting a raise on his current 123 rating.

However, despite coming from last and going wide around the field, the result was anything but a blanket finish.

This left the handicapper with little choice but to punish Green With Envy.

He is a class horse who is getting better and better and despite the upheavel to the weights going against him, he remains the 5/2 favourite with the sponsor for the Hollywoodbets Durban July.

The Daily News 2000 victory of Green With Envy was the third time a son of Gimmethegreenlight had won this race following Surcharge (Yulong Prince) in 2018 and Got The Greenlight in 2020.

Dean Kannemeyer has also now won it three times having also scored with the great Dynasty in 2003 and Rabiya in 2005. The 1999 winner Free My Heart was trained by Peter Kannemeyer a couple of months before Dean took over the yard.

It was a first Daily News 2000 win for jockey Craig Zackey and for owners and breeders of Green With Envy Khaya Stables.

Mike de Kock in the winner’s enclosure after Saturday’s Gr 1 Woolavington 2000 (Candiese Lenferna Photography)

Speaking after the running of the Woolavington 2000 on Saturday, Mike de Kock was not sure of the winner Silver Sanctuary’s participation in the Hollywoodbets Durban July and seemed to be swinging towards her running in the Gr 1 Ridgemont Garden Province Stakes instead.

He said, “I am not a hundred percent sure and I’ll discuss it with Kevin (Sommerville) again. I don’t want to go into the July just to be a participant. You have to look at the weights and see what the difference between her and the colts is. We’ll see how the handicappers assess this but I won’t commit until then.”

He said with two of Silver Sanctuary’s conquerors in big races now not in the picture for the rest of the season i.e. Gimme A Nother and Beach Bomb, it might be a “slightly softer” Garden Province this year.

He added, “There’s never really a soft Group 1, but I think there are a couple of nice three-year-old colts around and if she’s too tight with horses like Green With Envy and is not getting a full sex allowance it would put you off the July, wouldn’t it.”

He said, “But that is the beauty of training for Gaynor, she ‘s going to leave it to us, or let’s put it this way we are going to chat about it.”

He concluded, “Anyway, Silver Sanctuary was a deserved winner (of the Woolavington). She’s been quite game in defeat in all of her races. She just unfortunately ran into a freak (Gimme A Nother).”

The weights have actually swung in Silver Sanctuary’s favour since the above interview, or at least in relation to Green With Envy.

As things stand Silver Sanctuary will be getting 3,5kg from Green With Envy in the July, which is 1kg more than the usual weight for age sex allowance.

Mike’s other chief July hope is Dave The King, who runs in the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge next.

He said about his July particpation, “It’s a little far for him. But he’s a better horse since gelding and in last year’s July he wasn’t a gelding.”

He said about him not settling perfectly in his races, “He’s a big striding horse and it’s more the fact he wants to get on with it. A horse like him, you can’t hold him back because then you losing his best asset, his stride length.”

Speaking about Gimme A Nother he said that even without her pending overseas trip, she had deserved a rest.

He said, “I was hard on her.”

Asked how she ranked against the best fillies he’s trained, he replied, “She is pretty easy to train and is one of the best. I suppose we don’t know yet, but she’s looking that way. On a few lines of form, she’s looking to be a very, very serious filly. And I still think her best trip is ten furlongs. We haven’t even been there yet.”

Kevin Sommerville, Racing Manager of Drakenstein Stud, receives yet another trophy on behalf of the reigning champion breeders. (Candiese Lenferna Photography) 

There have been a number of thrilling record chases and championship tussles this season, not least of which is the race for the Breeders Championship.

Reigning champion breeders Drakenstein Stud’s exacta in the Gr 1 R1,5 million Woolavington Stakes saw them closing the gap on championship leaders Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein Stud to less than a R1 million.

Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein’s progeny have earned stakes of 27,018,894 and Drakenstein are on 26,278,331, which is a gap of R740,563.

Drakenstein have only been in existance for about 20 years and won their first title last season.

Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein, since combining for the championship, have won the title in 2018/2019 and in 2021/2022.

The tussle between the two breeding giants should go down to the wire.

The pending venture overseas with the crack filly Gimme A Nother will effect Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein’s chances.

But on the other hand Drakenstein stalwart colt Charles Dickens has been retired and their dual Gr 1 winner Beach Bomb has gone overseas.

Gimme A Nother is the third highest earning horse (non-restricted race earnings) in the country this season behind the Ambiance Stud-bred Royal Victory and the Khaya Stables homebred Green With Envy.

The Bush Hill Stud-bred Puple Pitcher is next best and then comes Drakenstein’s homebred Silver Sanctuary.

The Hollywoodbets Durban July is often the key race in deciding the championship and was won by Wigerbosdrift homebred in 2022 and a Drakenstein homebred last year.

Both studs will be hoping for good representation in that R5 million event this year.

Meanwhile, Drakenstein just need three more individual stakes winners to break their record of 20 individual stakes winners in a season.

They had 20 individual stakes winners of 35 races last season and this season have had 18 individual stakes winners of 27 races.

Picture: Frances Ethel after winning the SA Oaks (JC Photos)

Team Valor International made the following announcement today:

“Frances Ethel will leave for the United States.

Frances Ethel, the star G2 SA Oaks winner, and an unlucky 4th in the G1 Woolavington 2000, will immediately head to Cape Town to be prepared to be flown to Europe and then on to the United States to continue her racing career.

She will not be contesting in any further races in South Africa.”

Frances Ethel, a Brett Crawford-trained Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein-bred three-year-old filly by Rafeef, has only had six starts for four wins, a second and a fourth.

Code Of Conduct (Lancaster Bomber) gives Tristan Godden and Mike Miller a double together (Candiese Lenferna Photography)

Tristan Godden rode a double for Mike Miller on the Hollywoodbets Greyville polytrack today.

Muzi Yeni and Sean Veale rode individual doubles.

Godden is now on 46 wins for the season at a strike rate of 11.59%.

Yeni is on 157 wins at 12.68%.

Veale is on 54 wins at 11.30%.

Miller is on 38 wins at 9.64%.

The following article appeared in thoroughbredracing.com in 2018

Why this Winter Olympics skiing legend is ‘great for racing’