Rich fashion dazzles on race track
THE creativity conjured up on Durban’s Greyville Racecourse grassy catwalk had racegoers spellbound on Saturday.
Designers and fashionistas were encouraged to come up with enchanting creations to showcase at this year’s Vodacom Durban July‚ but most looked beyond the theme‚ “The Colour of Magic”.
“What I saw on the track gave me goose bumps‚” race organiser Gold Circle’s Gill Mostert said.
Outrageous and bold‚ intense colour‚ and dazzling twists to old favourites added glamour to the track.
“This year has been phenomenal. I haven’t seen fashion like this,” she said.
“We used the word ‘red’ a lot in the theme description but we had also said ‘expect the unexpected’, and I think that’s what the designers picked up on. “I did not expect the creativity we saw.” Diva Design’s Brenda Quin even got punters on their feet when her model paraded a colourful flowing dress with attached cape on the track.
Quin created it with pieces of material from every dress she had ever made.
“I wanted to do something different. Every dress that I have made was magical so a combination is how I interpreted magic‚” Quin said.
Mostert said the design had dazzled her. “That is what fashion at the Vodacom Durban July is about.”
LAST year’s runner-up, Marinaresco, defied carrying the heaviest weight to race to a spectacular win under Bernard Fayd’Herbe to win the R4.25-million Vodacom Durban July at the Greyville Racecourse on Saturday.
The triumph gave trainer Candice Bass-Robinson her maiden win in Africa’s greatest horseracing event.
Fayd’Herbe engineered a spectacular charge through the middle of the field in the closing 200m to win from a resurgent Al Sahem and another pre-race favourite, Edict Of Nantes, edging ahead of outsider Krambambuli and the filly Nightingale.
There were joyous scenes on the track as Fayd’Herbe was congratulated by his brother, Robert, who has overseen much of Marinaresco’s training at the Bass yard at the Summerveld Training Centre.
The capacity crowd revelled in the fever-pitch excitement as the thoroughbreds turned into the home straight, and needed replays to confirm that Marinaresco was indeed the 2017 champion. “I just needed a split,” an ecstatic Fayd’Herbe said. “I was waiting for him to get going and I gave him a few little taps. He took off and I was like ‘phew,’ I think I am going to get there.
“I might have won by a small margin, but I had plenty of horse underneath me.”
Bass-Robinson attributed the victory to a change in her training of Marinaresco after a series of losses.
“After last year’s second placing, we tried to get Marinaresco to race handier, but it just didn’t suit him.
“Once we backed off and allowed him to race as he liked, coming from way off the pace with that devastating turn of foot, he became much happier and we knew we had the Marinaresco of old back.”
The massive crowd then returned to the lavishly appointed suites and the vibrant Marquee Village to celebrate the occasion that will be remembered for its mild weather, and a distinct leaning towards bling, glitz and glamour and away from the bizarre.
The totes did brisk business and it was clear that, despite the reality of economic recession, racegoers were not going to curtail their extravagance on the day.
The first six runners were: 1 Marinaresco, 2 Al Sahem, 3 Edict of Nantes, 4 Krambambuli, 5 Nightingale, 6 Horizon