Durban July champ’s Equus Award stirs up a hornet’s nest

Strong words are being slung about in response to one of the Equus Awards announced this week – Durban July winner Winchester Mansion in the Champion Middle Distance category.

“Shock” was Turf Talk’s initial reaction to the announcement at the Equus bash in Joburg on Wednesday night. Then, on Friday, the newsletter’s editor David Thiselton, a respected, knowledgeable scribe not given to hyperbole, described the award as “not just wrong in the opinion of a few detractors, but … palpably wrong in the minds of just about everybody in the racing industry”.

July victory

The problem is that Winchester Mansion was named “Champion Middle Distance Horse (1800-2200 metres, age/gender Immaterial)” almost entirely on the basis of his victory in the July. The only other race he won in the category during the 2022/23 season was the Grade 3 Cup Trial at Greyville – a result that got him a last-gasp place in the July line-up and a featherweight to carry.

Winchester Mansion’s rival nominees for the award were heavy hitters: Jet Dark, Princess Calla, Puerto Manzano, Rain In Holland and See It Again.

Anyone who knows anything about the gee-gees would put at least three of those names above Winchester Mansion – and most would plump for See It Again for the gong.

Okay, Winchester Mansion beat See It Again in a tight July finish, but every true racing fan knows the famous race is not a level playing field. The July is a handicap, designed to give less-proven runners an equal chance against the hot shots – thus providing a national sporting spectacle and an enhanced betting proposition.

As Thiselton eloquently put it: “The award went to July winner Winchester Mansion, who performed at least 5kg below the three-year-old runner-up in the race, See It Again, as he is a year older and received 3.5kg from the latter.

“See It Again’s runner-up finish in the July was in fact rated the best performance of any horse over any distance of the whole season by one of the country’s most respected racing analysts, Karel Miedema (editor of Sporting Post).

“Furthermore, Winchester Mansion’s only other middle-distance win was in a Grade 3, while See It Again won two prestigious Grade 1s, the Splashout Cape Derby and the Daily News 2000.

“He would likely have been a landslide winner of the award if it had been left to the purists, who would have taken into account the merit of each performance by using various factors such as weight, the class of the race, the class of the opposition, form lines and the visual impression created.”

‘Expert panel’

The Equus Awards used to be adjudicated by an “expert panel”, chosen from racing’s luminaries. But they sometimes got things wrong – according to the chattering classes – and a more complicated system was introduced a couple of years ago, with a points table, public voting and the boffin panel all getting an equal say.

It seems the public vote caused all the trouble this time, with the game’s cognoscenti noting that the broad public generally has a poor grasp of the intricacies of handicapping and the like.

With the July being such a popular, high-profile event, an emotional bias can easily enter the picture.

How can this be fixed?

Poster Naresh on the African Betting Clan discussion forum wants the public vote element slashed from 33.3% to 10%.

Some observers suggest the public vote should be for a “Most Popular Horse” prize, as is done in Hong Kong, while there are also calls for an ombudsman to veto obvious flaws getting in the way of a credible result.

A lateral thinking suggestion: Perhaps the Durban July entry criteria and weights system can be looked at to lessen the race’s “lottery” aspect and try to ensure the best horse in the country has the best possible chance of winning it.

That might stir up strong words, too.