Winchester Mansion Will Attempt To Defy 90 Years Of July History

The reigning Hollywoodbets Durban July champion Winchester Mansion will become the latest horse to try and break decades of July history by coming from a layoff to win the big race.

The Brett Crawford yard revealed today that the Trippi gelding, who last ran in the Gr 1 Premier’s Champions Challenge on April 6, will not have another run before the Hollywoodbets Durban July.

However, James Crawford, assistant to his father Brett and the trainer who runs the team’s Highveld operation, is not concerned and pointed out, “Look how he ran in the Premier’s and that was after a layoff.”

The Trippi gelding’s previous run before the Gr 1 World Pool Premier’s Champions Challenge was in the Betway Summer Cup, where he finished a 4,20 length  eighth when giving 4kg to the winner Royal Victory.

He put in almost exactly the same performance in the Premier’s when facing Royal Victory at level weights and losing by half-a-length.

Ninety years ago in 1934 a horse called Sun Tor won the July after a layoff of 161 days (23 weeks). He was trained by Jackie Angles and ridden to July glory by fourteen-year-old Albert Rugg, who is the late Uncle of current Gqerberha trainer Duncan McKenzie and the grandfather of former Kimberley and Gqeberha-based trainer Jarett Rugg.

In 2021 and 2023 respectively, Got The Greenlight and Billy Bowlegs went into the July straight from the Champions Day meeting and would have had to defy respective 63 day (nine week) layoffs.

Those would have been the longest layoffs for a July winner since Sun Tor, but they failed to defy history, although Got The Greenlight did go close, finishing a 0,70 length third carrying 55kg as a four-year-old colt running off what everybody at the time thought was a lenient 124 merit rating.

Champions Day was staged earlier in the year than usual this year, on April 6, and that means Winchester Mansion will be coming back from a 91 day (13 week) layoff.

On the other hand, the Drakenstein Stud-bred Trippi gelding came off a 133 day (19 week) layoff to run a half-a-length second in the Premier’s.

Furthermore, he has overcome bigger obstacles than layoffs in his extraordinary life.

Just before the yearling sales he charged head first into a pole and broke a vertebrae in his neck.

Kevin Sommerville, racing manager of Drakenstein, said he had been a model patient.

A cracked vertebrae cannot be plaster cast and relies on the patient to be as still as possible to give the cracked bone a chance to knit.

Winchester Mansion was box rested for three-and-a-half months.

However, he was happy to just stay calm and look over his door every day.

He was also happy to eat out of a feed container put above his head, because lowering his head for extended periods would have been bad for the healing process.

Winchester Mansion recovered superbly and shows no ill effects of the injury.

Last season he took his “miracle horse” status a step further by proving the “experts” wrong.

They had said a horse could tavel down to Durban from the Highveld twice and be successful. But they said it could not be done three times.

Last season he obliterated that theory by traveling down for a third time and winning the country’s most famous race, the Hollywoodbets Durban July.

The 124-rated Winchester Mansion will carry 56kg in the July as things stand with See It Again rated 132, but there is still a long way to go and plenty of water to flow under the bridge.

He will be attempting to become the seventh horse to win the July twice and the sixth to do it two years in succession.