Futura (SAF) came to Durban for the winter with a big reputation and he completed the Champions Season with all the talk fully vindicated, cruising home to a comfortable victory in the Gr 1 Beach Beauty Champions Cup over 1800m at Greyville on Saturday. King Of Pain (SAF) also ended his winter campaign on a high note, running on well for second ahead of a rejuvenated No Worries (SAF) and Readytogorightnow (AUS).

Confidently backed in to favouritism, Futura sat in about fifth place as No Worries went out to show the way. Bezanova had to tack across from a wide draw to race handy, just ahead of Pomodoro and Blaze Of Fire.
No Worries stuck to his guns in the straight but Glen Hatt had a ton of horse under him and it was only a question of when he would ask Futura to go. Once he did so, the son of Dynasty responded in effortless fashion and the race was over a furlong out as he cruised home by nearly two lengths.

Futura has now won five of his eight starts and his remaining visits to the track have resulted in narrow defeats, one of them in the Vodacom Durban July. He was notably the only horse in the field who was able to make up ground from off the pace that day and it's not unreasonable to suggest he is the most exciting equine athlete in the country right now. Victory here provided a tremendous double for Hatt and trainer Brett Crawford, following their triumph with Wavin' Flag in the Gold Cup earlier in the day.

King Of Pain, a horse who promised much earlier in his career, has come good this winter and his connections can look back on a very satisfactory campaign following his Gr 1 victory in the Gold Challenge to go with this effort. He was conceding 3.5kg to the winner and there aren't too many horses in the country right now who can do that.

No Worries seems to have regained his enthusiasm and ran a respectable race here while Readytogorightnow showed enough to suggest he will be a factor in the big summer features in Cape Town next season.

3 b c Dynasty - Scribblin' The Cat by Badger's Drift
Owners: Messrs John T Freeman, I W Longmore & W J C Mitchell
Bred by Guy Murdoch
Winning trainer: Brett Crawford