This is Vodacom Durban July week as 50,000 patrons swarm into the Indian Ocean city for the major race meeting at Greyville on Saturday including the R4.25m Grade 1 feature over 2200m around the city with the spectacular city skyline backdrop. Actually these days more than that 50,000 will be in Durban over the coming days as there are events, particularly in fashion, that is run off-course so the economic impact is major for the City and KwaZulu-Natal as the meeting itself spins off into many areas.

The race itself is not the best race in Africa, but like Australia’s Melbourne Cup it captures the minds of everyone. Arrive and collect a rental car and a Durban July selection must be proffered as well as the driver’s licence and passport, it is that sort of population penetration after years of clever marketing.

The race itself is not the best race in Africa, but like Australia’s Melbourne Cup it captures the minds of everyone. Arrive and collect a rental car and a Durban July selection must be proffered as well as the driver’s licence and passport, it is that sort of population penetration after years of clever marketing.
Greyville on Tuesday was a hive of activity to complete the tent city inside the tracks and eventually somewhere underneath all those marquee’s is a golf course that will be restored to the click of a ball being hit next week.
On Saturday the sound will be full blooded pumping entertainment. South Africa might be in a recession, one of those entire man made it must be said, but the corporate world has not missed a beat with Greyville bookings.Overhead it was a day of blue sky and sultry winter warmth, Durban warmth. The Indian Sea rolls in relentlessly across from the ThoroughbredNEWS writing station 20 floors up and before darkness descended there were surfers out between the piers waiting for the last wave.  Perhaps dark wetsuits and fading light were not the best mixtures in the water, but each to their own version of a potential supper. On Saturday the floodlights of Greyville will ensure racing and socialising will go long into the night.

Overhead it was a day of blue sky and sultry winter warmth, Durban warmth. The Indian Sea rolls in relentlessly across from the ThoroughbredNEWS writing station 20 floors up and before darkness descended there were surfers out between the piers waiting for the last wave.  Perhaps dark wetsuits and fading light were not the best mixtures in the water, but each to their own version of a potential supper. On Saturday the floodlights of Greyville will ensure racing and socialising will go long into the night.

Durban is a tough city, gritty comes to mind as an everyday experience, but there is an unfailing courtesy of hospitality from every colour of this Rainbow Nation. The young intern helping with media credentials cannot wait for Saturday, she was going to wear her heels, wiser and older minds counselled that many metres of walking in her Saturday job is better competed in flats.

The heels though will be long, as in trust this correspondent long, and that is just the start of a spectacular fashion display that is the most vivid of any race meeting in the world. The Chanel might be limited but this crowd knows how to dress, and display.

However, that is Saturday and beforehand the Diary will visit Summervelt Training Centre from tomorrow morning for yet another piece of visual, sight and sound that stays in the memory throughout the year. The grooms singing to their charges as they walk out in single file reminds that this is not Randwick, Flemington, Sha Tin and Newmarket. This is Africa.

Rob Burnet

Pictured: The outfit created by Hlengiwe Mdunge (Durban University of Technology, left) for the Vodacom Durban July Young Designer Award, presented by Durban Fashion Fair, modelled by Bianca Khowa, picture Kevin Sawyer/Gameplan Media