Campanajo wins the inaugural Durban Turf Club Handicap
Seven runners, one mile, 500 sovereigns to the winner. Run on the original Durban Turf Club course. Campanajo defended his title in 1898 — the first of only five back-to-back winners in race history.
Trainer F. Murray wins four consecutive Julys
A feat unmatched in the next 113 years. Murray established the template for stable dominance that Sydney Laird, Terence Millard, Mike Bass and Justin Snaith would later follow at scale.
From 1600m to 2100m — first major distance change
The race lengthened gradually through its early decades: 1600m at inception, 1800m by 1913, 2000m in 1915, then 2100m in 1941. The current 2200m was set in 1970 and has held since.
The most famous finish in SA racing history
Sea Cottage — shot in the rump before the race in an attempted betting fix and miraculously recovered — returned to dead-heat with Jollify in a finish the racecourse couldn't separate. Sea Cottage was conceding 12.5kg to the runner-up. Started at 11/10, the shortest-priced favourite ever to start in the July.
The distance settles where it remains today
Eleven furlongs — short enough to attract speed types, long enough to demand stamina. The 2200m on the Greyville Inside Course is unique in SA: no other Grade 1 in the country is run at this distance with this surface.
Pocket Power and Dancer's Daughter cannot be split
Pocket Power carrying topweight of 58kg conceded 5kg to the brilliant filly Dancer's Daughter. Forty-one years after the first dead heat, they crossed the line in lockstep. The performance is still cited as one of the great weight-conceding rides in SA racing history.
First black African jockey to win the July (on Heavy Metal)
A historic moment for the transformation of SA racing. Khumalo had been threatening at top level for years; the July win sealed his place among the country's elite riders.
First female trainer to win the July (with Marinaresco)
Bass-Robinson had been part of her father Mike Bass's stable for years (the same stable that produced Pocket Power in 2008). Marinaresco's win — under jockey Bernard Fayd'Herbe in the famous Marsh Shirtliff pink, white and blue silks — marked her official emergence as one of SA racing's leading trainers.
Marcus breaks the SA G1 record on the same day
Riding Do It Again, Anton Marcus collected his fifth Durban July and simultaneously surpassed the SA record of 100 Grade 1 wins in a career. Marcus added the 2019 July a year later when Do It Again became only the fifth horse to win back-to-back.
First person of colour to own a July winner (with Kommetdieding)
Twenty-seven years after the end of apartheid, Reynolds' Kommetdieding completed the trifecta of historic firsts — black trainer, black jockey, black owner — all achieved in the modern democratic era.
A new sponsorship era begins
Hollywoodbets takes title sponsorship, succeeding Vodacom (2010–2021) and earlier sponsors Rothmans, Holiday Inn, Smirnoff and others. The KZN-rooted operator's signature purple becomes part of the race's visual identity.
R10 million prize and the return to open handicap
Prize money doubled to R10m — the richest graded stakes race ever run on African soil. Format restored to true open handicap with the full 10kg weight spread (52kg–62kg). A 63-strong first entry list confirms competitive depth not seen in years.