Picture: The Real Prince (closest) staves off the fight back of the courageous Eight On Eighteen to prevail by a quarter of a length under Craig Zackey. (Candiese Lenferna Photography).
Dean Kannemeyer admitted in the aftermath of his Hollywoodbets Durban July victory on Saturday with the Khaya Stables-homebred Gimmethegreenlight colt The Real Prince there had been a lot of pressure on him in the build up owing to an assurance he had given the connections. He had assured the latter he could get the colt ready without a second preparation run and that was coupled with his belief the colt would stay the 2200m trip.
However, he added, “I like pressure … having pressure is a privilege.”
Kannemeyer and Lady Christine Laidlaw’s Khaya Stables’ racing manager Jehan Malherbe had sat down after The Real Prince’s eyecatching 1,35 length fourth from a wide draw in the Gr 2 IOS Drill Hall Stakes and decided to protect his Hollywoodbets Durban July weight by not running him again before the big race.
His merit rating was raised to 120 after the Drill Hall, which was to give him a nice galloping weight of 56,5kg for the July.
Dean recalled Jehan questioning him at the meeting, “He said to me ‘Can you get him fit enough?’ and that was in consideration of him having had just one run in the Drill Hall over 1400m on Guineas day and then two months later having to run him over 2200m without another race beforehand. I replied, ‘Yes I can do it. I’ve got the facilities at Summerveld, I’ve got the grass tracks, I can do it, I can strip him.’ Many people doubted that, but the job was done.”
Dean watched the race on Saturday from a private suite and said, “Everything went his way (from a good draw of five). In any race you need a lot of luck and the July is a rough race. He got himself in the most perfect position and he was just beautifully switched off, lob, lob, lob, he came into the straight, waited, waited, and moved out, moved out, and he was watching Richard Fourie’s horse ahead. So it all worked out to plan. You need a lot of luck in any race, there are a lot of bad luck stories early on.”
Asked whether he believed The Real Prince would fetch the hot favourite Eight On Eighteen, who had rounded horses at the top of straight and shot clear off the back of a crawling pace set by last year’s winner Oriental Charm, he replied, “Well, I could see him coming strongly. He had to wait, wait and it was lucky he got out and then he followed him. But 300m out I felt he was coming to get him now and then they were locked together and he put his head in front.”
The Real Prince looked the obvious winner going into the final 200m, but that was only for those who underestimate the courage of an equine champion. The three-year-old Eight On Eighteen fought back courageously, but it was The Real Prince who had the momentum and he was also 2,5kg better off than weight for age with Eight On Eighteen.
Kannemeyer is now a four-time Hollywoodbets Durban July winner, while it was a second win for Lady Laidlaw’s Khaya Stables as an owner and first for her as a breeder, and it was a first July win for jockey Craig Zackey.
The Real Prince gave multiple champion sire Gimmethegreenlight his first Hollywoodbets Durban July victory and denied trainer Justin Snaith a sixth July win.
Dean was asked whether he knew he had won and replied, “I was in the company of a lot of friends and owners and a lot of Durban guys and they said, ‘You’ve got it!’”
However, there are always doubts for those most closely involved and he chose to wait for the slow motion replay before any form of celebration.
“I saw the slow motion replay and then I said, ‘Let’s go down and get the trophy.’”
Beaten 2,65 lengths into third was the Andre Nel-trained WSB 1900 winner Selukwe, while the Nathan Kotzen-trained Royal Victory was strangely completely ignored in the betting and drifted out to 33/1 at one stage, but ran his usual good race to finish a 2,85 length fourth. The Frank Robinson-trained Madison Valley ran a fine 3,15 length fifth from a handy position whilst Tristan Gooden gave the Snaith-trained Native Ruler a fine ride from the widest draw of all to finish a 3,95 length sixth.
The Hollywoodbets Durban July didn’t go as planned last season for the Kannemeyer-Khaya Stables team as their Splashout Cape Derby-winning colt Green With Envy was raised to 127 after winning the Gr 1 Daily News 2000, meaning he had to carry 56kg in the July, and as Craig Zackey revealed in the winner’s enclosure on Saturday, “Green With Envy did not have the best of preps after the Daily News, he got injured and it felt like I was carrying the world on his shoulders. The pressure just got to both of us and he then went wrong after the race, unfortunately.”
Zackey admitted he had harboured that memory for a year.
However, he added with delight, “The pressure is now well off.”
The happiest man on course might well have been Craig’s father Simon, who helped lead the winner in.
The merit rating raise given to Green With Envy after last year’s Daily News 2000 might well have been the pivotal incident behind Kannemeyer and Malherbe’s decision to not run The Real Prince again after the Drill Hall.
Their decision had appeared to be a massive gamble, because The Real Prince had looked to be a leading contender for the prestigious Gr 1 weight for age Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge and, furthermore, there looked to be serious cause for a stamina doubt over 2200m. He is not only a full-brother to Equus Champion Sprinter Gimme A Prince and to Gr 3-winning 1400m filly Gimmie’s Countess, but he had never gone further than 1600m himself. Adding to the stamina doubt was that his mother Real Princess won the Gr 1 SA Fillies Sprint for Kannemeyer and in her six career victories the furthest was over 1400m.
Lady Laidlaw, Kannemeyer and Malherbe have gone full circle since the latter pair purchased the Klawervlei Stud-bred filly Real Princess for Lady Laidlaw for a sales topping price of R2.7 million at the Cape Premier Yearling Sale of 2013 and it paid the ultimate dividend on Saturday.
Dean said, “Jehan and I saw Real Princess at the Sale, she was magnificent and we said, ‘There is just one lot for us this Sale and we must put our heads down and buy her.’”
They duly secured her for that Sales-topping price and Dean added with significance, “She was bred to go at least a mile.”
She was out of Pagan Princess, who was one of Klawervlei’s best boodmares. Pagan Princess was only a one-time winner, but she was by champion stallion Fort Wood and was a half-sister to the Al Mufti superstar Victory Moon.
Fort Wood is of course a stamina influence and Victory Moon won the Gr 2 UAE Derby, was third in the Dubai World Cup and was very unlucky in one of England’s biggest race, the Coral Eclipe. Furthermore, Victory Moon was a half-brother to Equus Champion Older Male Stayer, Kelly.
Dean said that deep down he was confident The Real Prince would stay and not only due to the above-mentioned stamina further down in his pedigree. He pointed at how easily he had won his only start over a mile, a five length victory in the Listed City Of Cape Town Jet Master Stakes at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth in February.
He added, “The Real Prince also switches off completely and has a helluva turn of foot and he is also a completely different type to Gimme A Prince, who is a bull of a horse.”
Kannemeyer’s reading of The Real Prince’s stamina capacity proved spot on.
Jehan Malherbe thanked Varsfontein Stud, who board Lady Laidlaw’s mare and then he added, “It was a great training feat and always when the jockey wins you say great ride.”
Lady Laidlaw was unable to be on course, but was very excited by the victory and was on the phone to Jehan before he had reached the winner’s enclosure.
The trio of Kannemeyer, Malherbe and Lady Laidlaw have had a huge amount of Gr 1 success, which includes races like the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate and Cape Guineas, Cape Derbys and too many others to mention. Lady Laidlaw apparently only buys or sends Kannemeyer about three horses per year, so Dean has done an incedible job for her.
The result did seem almost written in the stars as the day progressed. Dean’s first July win was in 2003 with Dynasty, then with Eyeofthetiger in 2006 and then for Lady Laidlaw with Power KIng in 2015. With the names Dynasty and Power King preceding Satuday’s race, The Real Prince had a chance for those who look for omens and this was enchanced on the day when the Gareth van Zyl-trained King Pelles won the Gr 3 Durban Gold Vase and the Candice Dawson-trained Chronicle King won the Gr 2 Omoda Golden Horseshoe.
It was indeed a day for royalty and a weight-carrying plan came together and denied the likely Equus Horse Of The Year, Eight On Eighteen, a unique feat of winning both the Met and July as a three-year-old.
