JUSTIN Snaith joined the select handful of trainers to win South Africa’s most famous race three years on the trot when six months of patient planning reaped a historic reward with Belgarion in the Vodacom Durban July at Greyville last Saturday.

When the four-year-old won the Peninsula Handicap at Kenilworth in January, Snaith told this writer: “Belgarion has a huge future come the Durban season but the previous time I ran him (in September) he got a sharp rise in the weights and I had to put him away.

“Had I not done so he would have gone up the ratings too quickly – and that’s why I am not going to run him again in Cape Town before Durban.”

The July was only the four-year-old’s second run since, he started 93/20 second favourite and beat Got The Greenlight by just under a length with the Snaith-trained Do It Again (winner of the race in the previous two years) a head away third.

This was July success number five for Snaith – only the legendary trainers Terrance Millard (six) and Syd Laird (seven) – have been more successful in the race’s 124-year history and, at 45, Snaith is a comparatively young man.

He has trained over 2,700 winners in 19 seasons and handles over 200 horses at his Philippi base a few miles from Cape Town airport. Younger brother Jonathan, a partner in the business, handles the admin side and liaises with the owners, leaving Justin to concentrate on the horses.

He is the best winner’s enclosure speaker I have ever come across (better even than Dermot Weld and John Gosden) and is a media man’s delight with always something interesting to say about each winner.

Long-time planning

On this occasion he was uncharacteristically quiet about the campaign, saying only: “This has been a long-time planning, utilising a horse that had a few issues early in his career and who wasn’t exposed.”

But stable jockey Richard Fourie expanded on this, saying: “This has been a year in the making, trying to find the right races so he could come into the July with a good handicap, and he has always been hidden.”

This was the third July victory for Fourie who learned his trade with Basil Marcus and who rode an extraordinarily confident race. He had only three behind him until the 18-strong field turned into the two-furlong straight where he went wide to come up the stands side and lead inside the final furlong.

“I had a bad draw and I wanted to sit a bit closer but I never panicked,” he explained.

“The pace was on so I left him alone and let him conserve his energy which I knew I was going to need at the top of the straight, and when we got there he was ready to go.”

Whip ban

But Fourie was in hot water with the stipendiary stewards. He hit his mount a total of 17 times – the maximum allowed is 12 and that is exceptionally high by international standards. He was banned for a week.

Belgarion is a son of the 2003 Durban July winner Dynasty out of a mare by the German horse of the year and multiple champion sire Acatenango. He is bred and owned by Alec and Gillian Foster who live in Northamptonshire but spend every winter in Cape Town.

The July, run in front of empty stands, was worth only R1.5 million (€79,000 and just 35% of last year’s race value) while the other Group 1 on the card was down by 32% at R325,000 (€17,000). This was the mile Jonsson Workwear Garden Province in which the Glen Kotzen-trained Temple Grafin served up a 40/1 shock.

The filly is a daughter of former Coolmore sire Duke Of Marmalade who is doing well at Gaynor Rupert’s Drakenstein Stud.

IN Cape Town, the unbeaten Katak, rapidly going from rags to riches, became only the third horse to win all three legs of the Winter Series (Guineas, Classic and Derby) and has put veteran trainer Piet Steyn back on the big-race map.

The Potala Palace colt, although bred by the Kieswetters’ Highlands Stud, came up at a minor sale as a yearling and Steyn thought he had lost the horse when the lots went through the ring much faster than he had anticipated.

At the end of the sale he bumped into the seller’s agent and, asked if he was still looking for horses, he mentioned the one he missed. “Here you are,” said the agent, handing him the passport. “R20,000 (€1,050) and you don’t need to pay until the horse is ready to run!”