On Saturday, 09 June at Clairwood Racecourse, there was a total of 95 points up for grabs in the 3 feature races. In the Gr.1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge, odds on favourite Variety Club (Var) put in another sterling performance over 1600m. In a small field of 5 runners, he was simply too classy for the opposition and WELL DONE to the winning connections, trainer Joey Ramsden, jockey Anton Marcus, breeder Beaumont Stud and proud owners Mrs I Jooste & Mr M Jooste. For his followers in the competition, Variety Club scored 25 points, the Rising Sun Gold Challenge being one of the four bonus races on offer. Second placed Castlethorpe (Not A Single Doubt) scored 14 points and third placed Pierre Jourdan (Parade Leader) scored 9 points, both horses running tremendous Vodacom Durban July trials.
The Gr.2 Tibouchina Stakes attracted a competitive field of fillies and mares over 1450m. Trainer, Glen Kotzen saddled last season’s Equus Champion Juvenile filly, Princess Victoria (Victory Moon), who went off as the SAFTote favourite. She won a gutsy race and showed that her run in the Gr.1 South African Fillies Sprint was all wrong. Princess Victoria scored 14 points and will now be aimed at the Gr.1 Garden Province Stakes on July Day. Second placed Mombasa (Tiger Ridge) scored 9 points and third placed Frequent Flyer (Silvano) scored 6 points.
In the Gr.3 Cup Trail, the field was made up of many Vodacom Durban July hopefuls and for the majority it was a case of, “win it and you’re in”! The race turned out to be a fantastic result for trainer Sean Tarry and owner Mr C J F Van Niekerk when Gold Onyx (Black Minnaloushe) beat his stable companion, the remarkable 8 year old, Buy And Sell (National Emblem). Gold Onyx notched up 9 points for his victory and English Garden (Camden Park) ran a cracking race to finish third, scoring 3 points for his followers. Buy And Sell was not in the competition.
The next big point scoring opportunity is the Gr.2 Post Merchants, which will be run over 1200m at Greyville Racecourse on Friday 15 June (night racing).
Provisional leader board – 11 June (subject to verification during final audit):
The entire Leader Board can now be viewed on the Charity Turf Challenge home page.
After the second bonus race of the competition, the Gr.1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge, only 19 points separate the top 100 in the competition. Compared with previous years at the same stage of the competition, this year’s renewal looks to go down to the wire!
“JJ THE JETPLANE” has been consistent throughout the competition and now leads by 1 point having scored with Variety Club and Princess Victoria over the weekend. “aiddon” , “Potomac2”
and “Brian Easthorpe 2” who shared fourth position last week on 114 points, scored a total of 39 points each over the weekend with their 2 selections that were successful in the Gr.1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge and the Gr.2 Tibouchina Stakes.
The “big movers” last weekend were “Bana’s Boy 7” who moved up from 53rd position to 5th having scored with Variety Club, Princess Victoria and Pierre Jourdan, and “Kipketer” who was on 94 points last week and out of the top 100, now in 8th position on 148 points having scored with both Gr.1 and Gr.2 winners and Castlethorpe.
In the Gr.2 Post Merchants on Friday the most popular result for the competition will be DEPARDIEU (Dupont) from the stable of Dean Kannemeyer.
The leading horses by points of the competition thus far are can be found at: www.racingsouthafrica.co.za
The fifth spot prize draw took place on Saturday, 09 June (Clairwood) on Tellytrack. This is a computer generated, random draw from all entrants and not dependent on points earned. The two winners of a R500 telephone betting deposits (each) kindly sponsored by TAB GOLD “The Intelligent Bet” are:
- Justin Vermaak 2
- Devil’s Brigade 1
CONGRATULATIONS to the two winners!
As and when Charity Turf Challenge horses earn points, we will update the Racing South Africa website and email data-base: www.racingsouthafrica.co.za
