Jack Milner: Rainbow Bridge has had the perfect preparation and trainer Eric Sands is feeling very confident ahead of Saturday’s Grade 1 Vodacom Durban July over 2200m at Greyville.
“He’s a brilliant horse and he doesn’t know how to run a bad race. In my opinion, he’s the best horse in the country,” said Sands.
The six-year-old son of Ideal World has hardly put a foot wrong in his career. He has raced 23 times for 11 wins and 11 places. His only unplaced performance came in last year’s Durban July when he finished sixth, beaten 2.75 lengths by Belgarion.
“If you look at the race again and see what happened to him you would understand why that happened. They went ridiculously fast for the first 200m and then slowed it down. Rainbow Bridge was following (stable companion) Golden Ducat who slipped and ducked out when he had to avoid the horse in front of him ended up pulling Rainbow Bridge with him,” explained Sands.
He followed that race with three close-up seconds, all in feature races, and then went on to win the Grade 1 Cape Town Met, the Grade 2 Drill Hall Stakes and the Grade 1 Gold Challenge.
The horse has also built up a good rapport with jockey Luke Ferraris who has ridden him in his last five races. “Luke has done well on him and even admits he would have won the Queen’s Plate had he been a little more patient. But since then, he has done nothing wrong.”
The two concerns pointed out by pundits is that he has to carry top weight of 60kg and that No 1 draw might not be ideal.
“The fact he has 60 kg doesn’t bother me. He knows how to carry 60kg because he’s had that weight in many of his races,” said Sands. “What does bother me is whether the gap between him and some of the other contenders created by the handicappers is accurate.
“They dropped him two points after his second in the Queen’s Plate but after he won the Met they put him back to 134. In his last two races he hasn’t run close to a merit rating of 134.
“But those were prep runs and he is very well right now.”
As far as the draw is concerned, Sands says it might just need a tweak of their gameplan. “We need to look at the horses drawn on his outside, at their gate speed and see what we can expect. I will discuss it with Luke and we will come up with a B Plan and even a C Plan.
“But as far as the things I consider important are concerned, every box has been ticked for this race.”
Vodacom Durban July betting:
3-1 Got The Greenlight
75-20 Linebacker
13-2 Rainbow Bridge
7-1 Do It Again
17-2 Rascallion
14-1 Belgarion, Kommetdieding
20-1 She’s A Keeper
22-1 Sovereign Spirit
40-1 Nexus
50-1 and upwards others
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