If Frankie can do it again, so can Striker | The Citizen

As July approaches, people start looking for signs. Portents, premonitions, harbingers and adumbrations, too.

They throw bones, ponder dreams, read tea leaves and try to unscramble numerology. All this is in search of the winner of Africa’s greatest horse race, which takes place on the first Saturday in July.

Nerdy, boring people go for the “trend extrapolation” method of fortune telling – that’s studying horses’ form, to you and I.

If you reckon things can be written in the stars, this week threw up a twinkling omen.

World-famous jockey Frankie Dettori, who is retiring soon, overcame a disappointing start to his final Royal Ascot when he won the meeting centrepiece, the Gold Cup, on Courage Mon Ami – giving him his ninth victory in the race and perfectly capping a fixture and a racecourse he’s become synonymous with.

Another legend of the saddle, Piere Strydom, will be having his swansong in Durban next weekend – riding hot favourite See It Again in the 127th running of the Grade 1 Hollywoodbets Durban July. If Frankie can do it again, so can Striker, surely?

Do It Again

Speaking of Do It Again, he’s another revered figure in the July mix: a two- time champion having a record sixth start in the race. Could the Frankie omen be pointing to this much-loved old warrior?

All of which brings us to Thursday morning, when 10 of the 18 July runners turned out for the traditional public gallops, with coffee and buns – which cannot be anything other than sticky.

Trend extrapolation of the past reveals that the winner of the July 10 days later has almost always impressed at the gallops.

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On Thursday, the pundits were raving about a three-year-old called Dave The King, trained by Mike de Kock. And one must admit the big galoot (at odds of 16-1) was mighty impressive as he easily outstripped his year-older stable companion Safe Passage (6-1 at the time).

Craig Zackey, Dave The King’s big-race pilot, hopped off after the 1400m blowout and declared the colt hadn’t shown anything like his full ability in Durban’s early-morning air.

Safe Passage, for whom international superstar jockey Christophe Soumillon is being specially flown out, was murmured to be a sluggish exercise worker.

See It Again

Strydom’s mount See It Again certainly caught the eye, as did Without Question, Rascallion, Pacaya, Pomp And Power and Trip Of Fortune. In a video from Randjesfontein on the Highveld, raider Winchester Mansion looked full of beans.

But to certain aged eyes, the morning’s standout was Do It Again – composed and regal as he thundered down his favourite strip of turf. The old boy’s rider, Gavin Lerena, barely moved in the irons as the son of Twice Over accelerated alone down the sward to the joint-fastest final-400m time.

The other candidate to clock the nippy 21.91 seconds was Rascallion, who had a pacing companion.