The colours Vibe Check carries today, white, red stars with green sleeves and cap, once belonged to a famous KZN racing family who won the July with the colours on two occasions (Picture: Race Coast)
Dennis Durrant, a jockey and trainer of many years standing, was at Summerveld on Tuesday and when conversation turned to the recent appearance of Chris Saunder’s old colours in a big race he reminisced about the last July in which those colours were carried to victory, although for him it was the July that got away.
The famous white, red stars and green cap colours of father and son combination Douglas and Chris Saunders, who were both chairmen of the Durban Turf Club, were famously carried to victory in both the 1967 and 1969 Julys.
In 1967 the Fred Rickaby-trained Jollify carried them to a dead-heat with the immortal Sea Cottage and in 1969 they were carried by the Fred Rickaby-trained Naval Escort, who was ironically a half-brother to Sea Cottage.
The colours became prominent in the Champions Season this year when carried to victory in the Gr 2 Omoda Golden Horseshoe over 1400m by the Vaughan Marshall-trained Vibe Check (Querari).
The colours are owned today by Irishman Seamus Burns, whose family own the renowned Lodge Park Stud in County Kilkenny, breeders of such greats as New Approach.
Dennis recalled, “in 1969 I won the Derby (The Natal Derby) on Naval Escort and in his next race I ran second to Home Guard in the Guineas (SA Guineas).”
Home Guard established a South African record in the latter race as he made it eleven runs unbeaten, a record that still stands today.
Dennis has a vivid recollection of the Guineas and said, “I was sitting about fourth or fifth on the rail with a double handful and I looked left and here’s James Maree running about three or four wide on Home Guard, so I said to myself, ‘I’ve got you.’ But as we came into the straight he did what Muis sometimes did and went for an early run. He went and I had to wait a few seconds to get out and he only beat me by half-a-length. Naval Escort was catching him, so I was a bit stiff.”
He continued, “Naval Escort had just won over a mile-and-a-half and the mile of the Guineas was just like a prep run for the July. I was retained by Fred Rickaby at the time and after the weights came out he said to me, ‘You’ve got two or three weeks to get your weight down and then you can ride him in the July, think about it.’ But Naval Escort had been set 47,5kg and I had been riding for 19 years and had never ridden that light ever before. I had ridden a lightest of about 52,5kg, but I had to take off a few pounds by sweating, running or playing squash to ride at that weight as I naturally rode at about 56kg. I did think about it, but realised that if it had come to July day and I couldn’t make the weight they were going to take me off, so I made up my mind that I wouldn’t be able to do it. Alan “Snowy” Reid was our apprentice and we put him on.”
Alan had earlier won the King’s Cup on Naval Escort, carrying 47kg.
Naval Escort started at 6/1 for the July, with the unbeaten Home Guard, who had to carry 52,5, going off favourite at 2/1..
Naval Escort won the race, defeating Home Guard by three-quarters of a length.
Snowy Reid, 57 years later, remains both the last apprentice and last teenager to win the July.
He still lives in the Hillcrest/Waterfall area, but is no longer involved in racing.
Alan “Snowy” Reid is led in after winning the July on the Fred Rickaby-trained Naval Escort (newspaper cuttings)
Dennis actually never had a July ride.
However, he recalled in 1957 riding a horse called Success for Terry Ryan over a mile at Clairwood and he said, “He ducked off the course and yet he still dead-heated with Migraine for third. Two weeks later at the same course I was riding Success and Freddy Byrnes, Joe Byrnes’ younger brother, was riding a horse for Neville Pearce called Last run and the horse fell. My horse jumped, but he hit his legs and fell and that was him out of the July. A few weeks later Migraine won the July, a horse we had dead-heated with despite me having ridden a bad race.”
Dennis later worked for George Rowles on his farm in Waterfall for 42 years. He was initially his trainer and said, “He never told me what to do. *I had 1200 races and won 200 and had 680 places. We had 1000m tracks, sand and grass, and they were uphill and that’s why we had a lot of winners. I had to stop training when they built what is today the Watercrest Mall, which was on his farm, as they built over some of the training tacks. After that I broke in the yearlings for him on the farm.”
Dennis recalled one memorable purchase at the Sale in his early years as a trainer.
“We bought a horse called Northern Queen (New South Wales) chiefly for stud purposes (Rowle’s stud farm called Ivanhoe was in Nottingham Road). She had won six races in Jo’Burg mainly over sprints and I ran her a couple of times and then Colin Buckham (the handicapper) phones me one day and says, ‘Dennis it’s the Natalia Stakes coming up, 2000m (Gr 1), do you want to nominate Woodland Glade. So I say, ‘No, she has gone to stud, nominate Northern Queen.’ It was a top field with Festive Season, Sistematic etc, top fillies. So, I went to George Rowles and said, ‘Mr. Rowles I have just nominated Northern Queen for the Natalia Stakes’ and he says, ‘What distance?’ I say, ‘2000m’ and he says, ‘WHAAAT!!’”
Dennis continued, “She was 20/1, Billy Harvey rode her and she won by 2,50 lengths. They had never tried her over the trip before. But when a horse is fit, and our track was a grueling uphill track, then it pays dividends.”
The farm is no longer, but Dennis still lives in the same house in Waterfall he has lived in for over 50 years.
Meanwhile, Vibe Check, will be followed by many this season. He looks to ooze class and the stalwart trainer Vaughan Marshall is sure to get the best out of him.
Tho9se famous colours will bring back memories for many if they have more big race success.
