Re:Politician 1978 Durban July

First time i`ve seen this ... Awesome! Not the best commentary though

Mr Laird`s and Bertie`s last July win

This was one of the greats of SA racing
Txs Bob

Did u see its Met win ?

Loved this horse , what a heart he had, although he had gummy joints and the maestro Syd Laird used to put Pollys hooves into a boot of some sort
with a swirling action liquid in it, every day.
His win in the Cape Guineas was pure grit and determination.
He wore down the two favourites, Fly By Night from the Cape and Big Swinger from the Tvl who were locked together in a titanic battle with a 100m to go. Big race Bertie Hayden drove Politician to get up in the dying strides over the sharp mile at Milnerton which many experts felt would be too short for Polly as he had already won over 1900m in his first few starts and was looking like a Derby horse.

Dave Scott wrote: This was one of the greats of SA racing
Txs Bob

Did u see its Met win ?

Thank you Bob a cracker 👋

Had not seen this before... thought there was a mistake.. could not see him winning from there...
Amazing. Thanks

In that race was The Malster. That’s the same horse which Lester Piggot noted, in some book, as his most memorable ride, I think the Kronenbrau, Clairwood.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes Mac was left at the start he had a couple of words at the starter.
He then came from last to first to win the race 👍

Here is 3 of his best rides

Polly was never raced in the Highveld frequently. He did win the Dingaans over the stiff mile but only by a diminishing neck from the local horse Noon Flight who gave us a bit of a fright.
Backed Polly at evens ante post for the race.
He was favourite for the biggest race in Turffontein, the Holiday Inns, but after running around under pressure in the closing stages of the race he could only finish 3rd I think.
However it was in the Cape that Polly was unbeatable, in fact he never lost a race at Kenilworth or Milnerton in his career.

Also never beaten over 1600m/mile.