The bookmakers have taken Sandringham Summit off the boards in early Durban July betting as the new owners of the horse seem to want to target him at the Gr1 /Gr 2 mile races in the Durban Season.

The star has also accepted to run in Saturday's Gr2 Hawaii Stakes on World Pool day at Turffontein as a preparation run into the Kzn Guineas.

In a departure to other plans to head directly to Kzn, it seems the connections took the step of going for another Gr2 in Joburg.

The Grade 1 winning juvenile was supposedly headed for the Kzn Guineas and Gold Challenge but skip the July and Daily News. It is believed that the owner base does not believe the horse will stay. However it goes deeper than that in the belief that South African stallions who win further than a mile tend to be disregarded by breeders as being too stout.

This is a damaging the overall reflection of the middle distance races in the country, an area we should be exploiting as a future Southern Hemisphere powerhouse of middle distance runners. As Australia moves their breeding focus to the sprinters, South Africans cannot legitimately compete with them as they have been established in that market for decades. South African breeders need to start focusing on great miles and middle distance horses for the new markets that could open to them as investments increase from the new international money bound to come into the market post the markets opening.

Our big markets include Hong Kong and China as we attempt to attract that money into our sales. The Sprinter/Miler market is not the way to go. Australia has that marketed tapped. The miler/middle distance market is open for exploration.

The Sandringham Summit case is an example of attempting to make a horse who can patently stay the July distance, into a miler stallion. It sells well for the breeders involved but it's not the best for the horse.

Here we have a world class horse who can win over any distance being reduced to a miler. He will likely clash head on with the classy Main Defender, a 131 rated horse, when the easier pickings are the Daily News and July as a final hit out for the season.

If the public does not get to see Sandringham Summit in the July, it would be a huge lost to the event and South African racing in general. He is good enough to win a race if that nature especially with the more favorable weight conditions. The most favorable it has been for three year olds in its long history.