The winner claimed a first prize of R5.75 million from the total record purse of R10 million.
Note To Self, the 11-2 second favourite, won the 2026 R10-million Hollywoodbets Durban July at Greyville racecourse on Saturday. Picture: Hollywoodbets/X
Note To Self, the 11-2 second favourite, won the 2026 R10-million Hollywoodbets Durban July at Greyville racecourse on Saturday – giving champion trainer Justin Snaith his sixth victory in Africa’s greatest horse race.
It was a fourth July triumph for former champion jockey Richard Fourie.
The 9-2 favourite Wish List, also trained by Snaith, finished second – just 0.25 lengths back – after looking like the winner about 100m from the post.
The filly Wish List, ridden by veteran Andrew Fortune, carried the same silks as the winner, making it a 1-2 for owners Jonathan Bloch and Nacy Hossack. Snaith’s brother Jonahan is also a co-owner of the winner.
Third place went to 25-1 outsider King Pelles, ridden by visiting Australian jockey Chad Schofield and trained by local conditioner Gavin van Zyl.
Viva’s Liberte (7-1) finished fourth and Isivivane (10-1) fifth.
The winner claimed a first prize of R5.75 million from the total record purse of R10 million.
Snaith said of the winning three-year-old gelding: “We knew he was coming to the fore at the right time. We just wondered if it was perhaps a year too early for him. But, in the last couple of days, he suddenly came right … just a different horse.”
Note To Self is by prominent stallion Futura out of the Judpot mare Guiding Light and was bred by Varsfontein Stud.
The bay has now won three times from nine starts.
Snaith, who saddled three winners in the six preliminary races on the Greyville card, now lies in joint second place on the Durban July honour roll – his six wins in the country’s biggest race putting him level with the legendary trainer Terrence Millard and one behind the great Syd Laird’s seven.
