Two Days To The Durban July
The gates open at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Saturday for the 130th running of the Durban July, South Africa’s richest and most famous race — a R10 million Grade 1 over the track’s testing 2,200m, and the single biggest date on the racing calendar. With two days to go, the field is set and one story is impossible to ignore: a filly on a four-timer, partnered by a jockey chasing one last piece of July history.
Wish List’s Red-Hot Form
Wish List, trained by Justin Snaith, arrives at the July on the back of four straight wins. She stepped up in trip to land the Group 1 Cape Derby over 2000m at Kenilworth in February, then returned to Greyville for two more, the latest a tight finish over course and distance on 30 May. Saturday asks a different question again — 2,200m, open-handicap company, on Durban July day — but everything in her recent form line says she’s building toward it. She also drops to a feather-light 54.5kg, more than 5kg below her recent racing weight, and arrives off a textbook 33-day break.
- Draw: 7
- Weight: 54.5kg
- Trainer: Justin Snaith
- Jockey: Andrew Fortune
- Recent form: 1-1-1-1-3
Andrew Fortune’s Last Dance
In the saddle is Andrew Fortune, one of the most experienced riders in the country and expected to be partnering his final Durban July runner on Saturday. Should Wish List salute, Fortune would become the oldest jockey to win the race — a fitting way to close out a July career on exactly the kind of big-race composure he’s built his name on. He was up when she won last time out, and stall seven gives him options from gate to wire on a track that rewards horses able to sustain a true gallop up the final rise.
Where Winning Post Rates Her
With market odds still to be posted, Winning Post’s model currently rates Wish List a Moderate-confidence contender in a 17-runner field that’s already shed one big name — Star Major was among the scratchings in the run-up to raceday, part of a Durban July picture that’s kept shifting right up to declarations. Full runner-by-runner verdicts and confidence ratings for the entire field will update on Winning Post as odds land closer to Saturday.
Winning Post’s full rankings for Greyville on 4 July — including every runner’s verdict and confidence rating — are live now at cfox.co.za/predictions.
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