CANDICE Bass-Robinson went into the record books as the first woman to train the winner of the Vodacom Durban July when Marinaresco got up in the last stride of South Africa’s most famous race at Greyville last Saturday.

The four-year-old, a little unlucky when second in last year’s race, was the smallest of the 18 runners yet he carried more weight (60kg) that any Durban July winner has ever done.

His 42-year-old trainer might have been born with the training equivalent of a silver spoon in her mouth – her father Mike Bass was one of the country’s most successful before a freak illness robbed him of his right leg, and he won the July three times – but she has continued in the manner born, won her first Group 1 in January and will finish her first season in the top five. At the moment she is even ahead of Mike de Kock!

She ran three in the great race and they finished first, fourth and sixth.

Indeed all three were so much in the firing line that she took her eyes off the most important one.

“I was watching Nightingale and Horizon because Marinaresco looked to be out of it and at the end I didn’t even know I had won the race,” she admitted.

Marinaresco, a son of the much-travelled Silvano out of a mare by the André Fabre-trained Grand Prix de Paris winner Fort Wood, was bred by the Oppenheimer family’s Mauritzfontein Stud and started at 17/1 partly because only one horse had triumphed with top weight since the turn of the century. That was the Bass-trained Pocket Power.

Marinaresco’s rider Bernard Fayd’Herbe spoke after the race: “I was a bit out of my ground early but I managed to sneak up the rail and I was in a winning position turning into the straight. I then had to switch because I had horses in front of me. It was close at the line, and I wasn’t sure I’d got up, but I still had quite a lot under me.”

He beat the 4/1 favourite Al Sahem by a head with the strongly fancied Edict Of Nantes a quarter of a length away while Nightingale and longshot Krambambuli dead-heated for fourth only a short-head further back.

The winner carries the Marsh Shirtliff colours wornby Pocket Power.

The July, as it so often does, turned into a rough race partly because the early pace was dreadfully slow and the unfortunate Ten Gun Salute and Safe Harbour were each hampered on three separate occasions.

Two jockeys were suspended and S’Manga Khumalo on the runner-up was fined for using his whip with excessive frequency but, despite the early pace, the time of 2m 12.51s was the fastest for the 11 furlongs since 2008.

smurfit

Bela-Bela, by the 2003 July winner Dynasty out of the famous Michael Smurfit-bred mare Mystic Spring, started favourite when only managing sixth in last year’s July but she seemed to relish the drop back to a mile in the Grade 1 Garden Province and she left the opposition for dead in the final two furlongs to score by nearly four lengths, much to the relief of her trainer.

“I didn’t enjoy that at all,” Justin Snaith declared. “All I was hearing all day was that Bela-Bela is the banker and I thought ‘Oh no.’

“I prepped her all the Durban season to show today just how good she is.”

He is keen for the filly to stay in training as a five-year-old – not that uncommon for the top ones in South Africa where many owners and trainers believe in racing them very little at two.

Lerena to Britain

SOUTH African champion Gavin Lerena, flown back by the owner to partner Brazuca (only 12th) in the July, returns to Britain next weekend. However, he will be back in South Africa later in the year and will resume his association with Geoff Woodruff.