South Africa’s Champion three year old Big City Life, superbly ridden by Greg Cheyne, ran an outstanding race to be crowned the Vodacom Durban July champion on Saturday. Zirconium and Forest Path, both De Kock stable inmates, were second and third while the Bass trained Thundering Jet held on gamely for fourth. Pocket Power ran on exceptionally well from the rear but could only manage fifth position despite the fastest 400 to finish.

Pace and the race

Pocket Power jumped slightly awkwardly, out of stall gate 12 after not being fully settled in the pens and found himself third from last while Big City Life settled in third and Forest Path set the running ahead of Aluminium. Zirconeum sat just behind the eventual winner with Thundering Jet and Smart Banker next best. River Jetez jumped well but elected to try and slot in and found herself a little wide in mid field while Thundering Jet found a perfect spot upfront on the rail. With just about no pace on up front it was always going to be an unattainable task for Pocket to make up the 20 length deficit required in the Greyville straight and at the turn for home found himself in last position which put paid to any chance he had of winning the race.

Despite a brave challenge from Zirconium as she drew along side the Casey Tibbs colt, the Big City found extra in the closing stages to win a great race and solidify his position of top ranked three year old in the Country and new Vodacom Durban July champion.

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Kudos to Glen Kotzen, owners and family who had their charge turned out superbly on the day. An outstanding achievement and certainly a well deserved win for the young trainer who has had an exceptional racing year. It was his turn to shine and may he enjoy much success with his new superstar in years to come. The timing could not have been any better for Hong Kong bound Greg Cheyne who has proved that he can bump heads with any jockey in the world and we wish him the very best with his overseas campaign. We would also like to congratulate Mike De Kock for an exceptional training feat in running home the second and third place finishers from the two worst respective draws.

Unfortunately for Pocket Power, he was beaten at the start. Our intentions were to overcome the poor draw but after an awkward jump to the left, Bernard was forced to slot him in and unfortunately found himself wide and three from the rear. Once the pace was slowed down up front it was always going to be a near impossible task for him to make up the deficit and a decision to round the field and race wide, with his weight, most probably would have proved just as costly. As the race panned out, it was the front running tactics which proved most fruitful, which is how they eventually crossed the line. The fact that Pocket Power ran the fastest 400m to finish was made irrelevant by his poor position but he certainly ran a fantastic race under the circumstances and would not have lost any fans on that effort. He took his race beautifully and is as sound as ever.

Nevertheless it is very disappointing for all of us, his connections, fans, punters and for Bernard that his colours had to be lowered by such misfortune. It was unquestionably the best we have ever had him and there would have been little doubt in our minds that he would have delivered the goods bar the misfortune, but that’s how it panned out, and it just was not meant to be, I guess that is the very essence of horse racing.

A question on a lot of peoples mind’s, is where to for Pocket Power from here?

We are considering the option of sending him overseas but where to exactly is still a topic for his owners and for Mike to discuss should he indeed leave our shores. It would be a great shame to not have tested him on the international arena and now that we have a sound horse to work with the temptation is obviously that much more alluring, however having said that no decision is final at this stage. His last race of the season will be the Champions Cup on the 25^th of July at Clairwood Racecourse. A weight for age group 1 conditions race over 1800m where the most he would give away would be 5kg to his own age group. The field has not been finalised.

The day was however boosted by two winners from the yard in our two stayers Golden Parachute and Diamond Quest.

We got off to a good start in the first when Bernie rode out a strong finish on Golden Parachute. The Montjeu colt was deemed a promising stayer from the start and is coming along the right way for us to think he will be a notable prospect next year.

It has been a very gratifying to see Diamond Quest return back to his best form after a bumpy overseas campaign last year in which he got injured. Glen Hatt had him under a tight hold for most of the way round and he ran out a comfortable winner over the three thousand meters for Rose Leheup who watched from here English home. He is a past winner of the Gold Cup and perhaps that will be next on the agenda for the son of Saumarez in early August again.

Bill Of Rights was unlucky to get touched of for second in the consolation 2200m while Thundering Jet was perhaps the star performer of the day and a welcomed delight for owner Ian Longmore when staying on well to finish 4^th in South Africa’s greatest horse race.