Canon Gold Cup day represents the last official day of the Durban Champions season, with four Group 1 races on the day. The Bass stable has representation in both the Canon Gold Cup and the Champions Cup.

The three July contenders, Chesalon, English Garden and Castlethorpe  have all been nominated and drawn well for this year’s edition of the 1800m Champions Cup, however English Garden as of yesterday is now a late scratching. He bled badly in his workout yesterday and will probably now be sent back to Cape Town where he will more than likely be retired. Chesalon , who proved best of the Bass July couplings , finishing 3^rd, gets the services of Bernard Fayd’Herbe in what is possibly his best trip having won 3 times from 4 attempts over this distance. He has been knocking on the door this season, but remains winless. He is the weak favourite at 5/1 for this race. He should give a good account of himself again if he remains sound, and with a bit of luck he can hopefully turn the tables as he comes in fairly well at the weights.

Castlethorpe is given another chance to redeem his penultimate form after finishing last in the Durban July. This two furlong drop in trip should suit him a lot better and with the services of Raymond Danielson from a six draw he should have a good chance of redeeming himself on his July effort. He comes into this race as the best rated horse off his 112 merit rating, but it is however still difficult to assess his chances in this line up. If he can deliver his best he will have a good each way chance.

The Canon Gold Cup remains the highlight of the day for race goers and Mike Bass has four entries for the marathon group 1. All four runners are coupled on the bottom third of the betting boards, so we are left with less confidence on this occasion.

Croc Valley, one of a handful of fillies in the race, gets the best of the draws of our runners (3). This will be the first time she takes on this distance so again difficult to assess, but her female line suggests the trip would be no problem being a half-sister to both stayers in Galileo’s Night and Komatipoort. Grant Van Niekerk takes the ride; she is a natural front runner and we would be delighted if she runs a place. This will also be her last run before she heads off to stud. If she stays, and from this draw, if things go her way she may be our stable elect in this race as she is particularly well at the moment.

Thanks John and Jeppe’s Reef are both former runners of this race. The latter has been putting up really good work at Clairwood and has come well within himself reports Robert Fayd’Herbe. His draw of 19 is obviously a big concern so he will need some luck in the running. If he can turn for home within reach he could be in with a shout of finishing in the money. His form has been unreliable however so we remain more hopeful than confident. He put up a good run in this race last year finishing 5^th despite being hindered at a crucial stage he still ran on strongly at the finish.

The big striding Jallad colt, Thanks John is one that will certainly relish the Gold Cup trip. You can draw a line through his Gold Vase run last time out after being given an impossible ride fading badly through no fault of his own.  We quietly fancied his chances on that occasion and would like to see him have a fair chance this time around. He has always been difficult to place due to his lack of pace in the early stages, and hopefully jockey Randolph can get him well placed from the jump this time around. He is capable on his day, but will need to be at his best to find the frame in a field of this calibre.

Golden Parachute will need to regain his earlier PE form if he is to threaten this field. He has not had a great record in this race in both his previous attempts and will need to improve dramatically to feature here leaving us more hopeful than confident.

Blake, although carrying top weight, will be the horse they all have to beat on his last run and on current form. Whoever beats him should win I would think. Vettel is the other obvious danger coming off a good July 5^th place. “Sage Throne, Seal, In Writing and Gorongosa are possibly the others to look out for in an otherwise open event” said Mike Bass.