The Conglomerate wins the Durban July

The 120th running of the Vodacom Durban July produced something of an upset as one of the lesser fancied horses, The Conglomerate, produced a powerful finish to claim victory in the Grade One contest at Greyville Racecourse on Saturday.

Having to overcome the widest draw of the field, jockey Pierre Strydom managed to get his mount to break well and found a position just off the pace as the Justin Snaith trained Dynamic went off to set the pace.

As the field turned for home the field fanned out and It’s My Turn, another of the Snaith hopefuls, looked like making a move while stablemate Bela-Bela, which started as the eventual favourite ducked to the inside rail for her run.

But The Conglomerate produced a storming run under Strydom and had a clear passage down the centre of the track and found the line in time, beating off a challenge of a fast finishing Marineresco. The Mike Bass trained entrant flew at the finish but failed by a neck to earn second.

The minor placings were filled by Mac De Lago with the Johannesburg raider just nabbing It’s My Turn on the line to claim third by a nose. The quartet ended up paying R152 149.10 which is indicative of the rough result.

Winning jockey Pierre Strydom. Picture: Jacques Nelles

The Conglomerate went off as a 28/1 shot with the bookmakers.

Jockey Pierre Strydom at Greyville. Picture: Jacques Nelles

It was a first success in this race for Cape Town-based trainer Joey Ramsden while Strydom added a fourth victory in one of South Africa’s most illustrious races.

His first victory was in 1996 aboard the legendary London News while following up in 2001 aboard Trademark and his most recent win was in 2011 aboard Pomodoro.