The Real Prince crowned king

DEAN Kannemeyer won his fourth Gr1 R5 million Hollywoodbets Durban July when The Real Prince got home by a whisker ahead of favourite Eight On Eighteen in a thrilling finish to Africa's greatest horserace at Hollywoodbets Greyville yesterday.

- ANDREW HARRIS

The two runners came together 300m out and were roared home by a capacity crowd of close to 50000 people. Third was Selukwe with Royal Victory putting in a late flourish to snatch fourth. It was masterful planning by Kannemeyer who plotted every step of the way on how to get.

The Real Prince into the race off a competitive weight. Also, there were always doubts about the gelding's stamina limitations over the 2200m trip as he had never won over further than 1600m and his full brother, Gimmer A Prince, was crowned the country's champion sprinter two seasons back.

However, he stayed every metre of the trip and narrowly got the better of Eight On Eighteen. Justin Snaith's colt was attempting to become the first three-year-old winner of the Gr1 WSB Cape Met and the July in the same year carrying a record weight for a three-year-old colt. He came within a short-head of achieving that feat but was far from disgraced and remains the country's top-rated horse.