Vintage crop for Daily News 2000, but the sips are rather small

Every year racing people pass personal judgements on the quality of the current three-year-old crop of horses.

Are the sophomores better or worse than usual? There’s seldom consensus; it’s “stronger” or “weaker” on the spectrum.

Occasionally, the young guns are “exceptional” – like this year. Champion trainer Justin Snaith even went as far as to say the class of 2025 was the “best ever”.

Old gits point out that 1972 saw mighty clashes between Elevation, In Full Flight and Sentinel, but young Snaith’s “ever” was probably within the confines of the 21st century.

It is indeed a brilliant crop for any era. From Snaith’s yard alone, Eight On Eighteen, Sail The Seas and Okavango are already making marks in the history books.

Count in other stables’ stars like One Stripe, Fire Attack, Quid Pro Quo, Confederate, Fatal Flaw, Spumante Dolce and My Best Shot and you can’t not be impressed.

So, then, why are fields for the three-year-old Classic races so tiny?

Seven horses for Daily News 2000

Only seven horses are due to line up for the Daily News 2000 at Greyville on Saturday. This is arguably the premier three-year-old contest in the country, with the prestige of Grade 1 status, a total purse of R2-million and valuable merit rating points on offer that could open doors to other important races.

A couple of months ago, the Grade 1 Splashout Cape Derby only got five takers, prompting officials to reopen entries and scrape together another two participants. Earlier, the storied WSB Cape Guineas had six runners, and before that the Gauteng Guineas and SA Classic in Joburg had 11 horses each – dismal for a generation of horses just coming to the peak of their abilities.

There have been some high-profile injuries reported, such as to Fire Attack and Sail The Seas, but one would then expect a clamour of wannabes for their places.

South Africa’s merit rating system has been blamed for the problem. There might be some truth in the argument that the Daily News 2000 is positioned close to the Hollywoodbets Durban July on the calendar and owners and trainers of up-and-coming horses prioritise that glamour event and are reluctant to incur heavy MR penalties that might disadvantage them in their quest for immortality.

If that’s true, and owners and trainers are eschewing the chance to win big money and big trophies, our racing scene is in a strange moment.

Rich owners and top-level trainers are vitally important in keeping the game going, but perhaps we have reached the stage when stakes on offer have fallen so far behind the game that they’ve become of little
consideration to the ultra-wealthy among us.

Durban July

The Durban July itself is also blamed by some. The fact that the country’s biggest race is a handicap – with qualifications – is also cited as a reason for connections shying away from Classic clashes with highly rated opposition.

No-one is yet suggesting the July change its essential DNA. Nonetheless, there is an argument for the July’s conditions to be tweaked to make it a wee bit tougher for three-year-olds. Eight of the last 20 renewals have gone to three-year-olds and a high proportion of the remainder to lightly raced four-year-olds with low weights.

Everyone is trying to get their nag selected for the final line-up with the lowest possible MR – and therefore a feather weight. That’s clearly a major factor in the outcome and you’d imagine powers-that-be would want to even up the contest a bit and bring some of the country’s top older horses back into the July reckoning.

There might only be seven horses lining up at Greyville’s 2000m mark on Saturday, but they will not be short on ability. Cape Town Met and Cape Derby winner Eight On Eighteen will be a banker for many punters.

However, it should be remembered that young horses can improve quite suddenly and rivals such as Okavango, Spumante Dolce and Confederate could be ready to spring a surprise.

Daily News 2000 betting

5-10 Eight On Eighteen

6-1 Confederate, Okavango

7-1 Spumante Dolce

10-1 Native Ruler

14-1 Parisian Walkway

40-1 Makazole