Darryl Hodgson - Runner in the Vodacom Durban July

Photo from Gold Circle/
Journalism by David Thiselton

Past Master carries top weight of 60kg in the Vodacom Durban July, being the J&B Met winner, and will attempt to make up for the disappointment trainer Darryl Hodgson suffered in the big race exactly 20 years ago.



Hodgson had I’m Taking It in the July in 1991 and his plan was to go around the field from draw 19. He reckoned in retrospect that if this plan had been followed the horse would have gone close.



However, as it panned out, I’m Taking It ended up at the back on the rail and flew in the straight to finish just over two lengths back in seventh behind the winner Flaming Rock, who took the route from draw 20 that Hodgson had had in mind for his charge.



Hodgson’s other July runner in his career was the three-time Grade 1 winning filly, Vesta, who finished fifth in 1993 and ninth in 1994, having always been better suited to slightly shorter.



However, he regards Past Master, as the best horse he’s ever trained.



The strapping four-year-old Jet Master gelding ran disappointingly in the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate over 1600m before his J&B Met win and had a similar run in the Rising Sun Gold Challenge on Monday last week in sticky ground.



Jockey Gerrit Schlechter said that he had changed legs and shown little interest.



The following morning his eye was swollen and almost shut, which confirmed he had been hit by a flying clod in the race.



Hodgson, asked on whether this could have been an explanation for the below par run, could not be sure.



Schlechter believed the more likely explanation was that the yard had been easy on the horse in the build up to the Gold Challenge.



The likely reason for this was that the July was the race they had in mind as his chief mission, which Hodgson had revealed before the Gold Challenge.



Many pundits and punters wrote Past Master off after his Queen’s Plate run and won’t want to make the same mistake twice.



The one concern, besides his big weight, is whether he will stay the 2200m trip, for although he won the J&B Met well it was a very slow run race.



Hodgson said, “Everybody keeps telling me he won’t stay, but I don’t see any reason why he won’t.”



Past Master, after beating a classy field to win the Selangor over 1600m in very soft conditions as a young three-year-old, was out for nearly a year with a suspensory ligament injury.



He has not had a trouble free time in Durban as shortly before the Drill Hall a tendon on the opposite leg to his ligament trouble flared up.



“When I saw it I thought that was his season over,” said Hodgson. “But the scan showed there was no hole. We put ice on it and it came down. He missed a few days work then worked on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday and won the Drill Hall on the Tuesday. We are not sure what caused the tendon to flare up. Even the vet was left scratching his head.“



Hodgson added, “He has been perfectly sound since then, but it is going to be hard for him with 60kg.”



However, he was thrilled with his draw of seven.



He views Bravura, Igugu, Run For It, The Apache, English Garden, Black Wing, Galileo’s Destiny and Super Storm as his dangers.



Hodgson described Past Master as “relaxed and lovely to work with”, but added that he can get “a bit above himself before big races and takes nips” at those who get too close.



“There are a few people walking around with scars,” he laughed, as he looked at the chunk that the horse had taken out of one of his fingers.

Must be value at his current price - imo

and he showed his well being at the gallops today !