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Durban - Winning jockey Stuart Randolph described his steed Power King as a “courageous runner” after he snatched victory in the Vodacom Durban July on Saturday.
The 119th running of the race had tense moments after the finish with an objection lodged which was eventually overturned.
Punta Arenas and Tellina placed.
Speaking to News24, Randolph said that Power King had broken from the gates with intensity.
“He broke the gates well and he is the type of horse that comes from quite far back. He broke with a lot of speed that kept me in contention,” he said.
“I didn’t want to hit the front too early and everything worked out beautifully. The horse on the outside [Punta Arenas] ran onto him and the first bump was marginal and then I had a bit of a nudge and the horse was unbalanced but he was so courageous and fought all the way through to the line,” Randolph added.
Muzi Ngozi, who has been training the horse for four years, said he was happy that his Power King had taken the crown.
“The first thing I do for him is clean him and then I feed him. After that I take him and we train. We race every day except for Sunday, on Sundays I take him for a walk,” said Ngozi who is originally from the Eastern Cape.
The 28-year-old man described Power King as a very confident horse.
“He is not scared of anyone.”
“I am so happy that he won, he is only four-years-old. He deserved it because we train very hard.
We will continue to train so that we can win more races in the future,” said Ngozi.
Gold Circle racing analyst Warren Lenferno had predicted that it would be a close run between No.2 Wylie Hall and No.10 Legal Eagle, insisting that a reverse was not an outside possibility.
He had placed both No.5 Majmu and No.1 Futura.
Over R100 million is expected to be paid out in winning bets, and the spend on betting on course and off-course will top R220 million, with the French tote formally co-mingling with the local tote for the main race for the first time.
