Defending Vodacom Durban July favourite Pomodoro will race in a tongue tie in his bid to go back to back in South Africa’s ruichest race at Greyvile on Saturday.

Trainer Sean Tarry and rider Piere Strydom decided Pomodoro needed the addition of tongue tie after his final fast work at Clairwood.

Tarry called in Styrdom to ride Pomodoro in the gallop to make sure the jockey was happy with his plan to use the tongue tie after the gelding had worked brilliantly when added to his gear the previous week.

Tarry said he was satisfied after the two rehearsals that the gear change could go ahead.

Strydom is more confident going into this year’s race than he was last year.

“He is a better horse this year. He’s striding better and his final preparation run was better,” Strydom said.

Pomodoro has a much better barrier draw in seven this year as opposed to gate 20 last year.

Tarry is happy that all four of his July runners are where he wanted them to be but there is no doubt Pomodoro is the stable’s pick.

“He’s established himself as the best of them by quite a way and is a worthy favourite,” said Tarry.

“We were behind in his preparation to start with. I gave him an extended rest after the Met in January because I felt the Cape trip took quite a bit out of him.

“I cut it a bit fine bringing him back but I think we’ve gotten away with it.”

“He’s the one to beat but, at the weights E-Jet might be the better value at 25-1.

“I’ve reason to believe that he’s got improvement to come on his run in the Greyville 1900.

“E-Jet is not in the same class as Pomodoro, but 4.5kg is a reasonable amount of weight to be getting and he was not far behind in last season’s SA Classic or SA Derby.”

While he believes Heavy Metal and Whiteline Fever are carrying too much weight he says they are making up numbers.

“On what they’ve shown so far Heavy Metal and Whiteline Fever are both too close to Pomodoro,” he said.

Both horses receive only 0.5kg from their stablemate but Whiteline Fever has finished ahead of Pomodoro twice in their five clashes and was only 2.75 lengths behind his stable companion in last year’s Durban July.

Heavy Metal is still on the upgrade over middle distances having been restricted to shorter trips for most of his career.

“He’s done nothing wrong over longer distances and he could catch up to the rating he’s been allotted.

Tarry warns punters is to stay away from the three-year-olds.

“In my opinion they are weaker than in previous years. They can still improve, but at this stage they can’t compare to last year’s crop so punters should stick with the older horses,” he said.