Hat Can Defend His Title on 3 November

Hat Puntano, winner of last year’s Peermont Emperors Palace Charity Mile, is among the 45 entries for this year’s race over 1600m on the Turffontein Standside track on Saturday 3 November.

Tabnews report that this Grade 2 race differs from other events in that every horse will run for a charity while each charity selected will be represented by a celebrity.

The money will be divided among the charities based on their horses’ finishing positions.

No charity will go home empty handed.

Hat Puntano could defend his title

There is a supplementary entry stage on Friday and the final field as well as the draws will be announced at a function at Emperors Palace on Wednesday 24 October.

The celebrities and charities will also be announced at that point, as well as which horses they have drawn.

As expected, half of the entries for this race are from either the Sean Tarry or Mike de Kock yards. Tarry has nominated 12 horses and De Kock 10.

Matador Man – one of the Tarry dozen

Tarry’s dozen are Africa Rising, Bulleting Home, Captain And Master, Desert Rhythm, French Navy, last year’s Summer Cup winner Liege, Matador Man, Safe Harbour, Silver God, Social Order, Tilbury Fort and Warrior’s Best.

De Kock has a very strong entry comprising top three-year-olds Soqrat and Alyaasaat, recent Joburg Spring F&M Challenge winner Cascapedia, four-year-olds Noble Secret, Like A Panther, Puget Sound, Mujallad, Hakeem and filly Takingthepeace, as well as fast-improving Irish import Buffalo Bill Cody.

Mike and Adam Azzie, who train Hat Puntano, have entered five runners, the others being Arctica, Orpheus, Full Mast and Splendid Garden.

The draws are quite important over this distance although the race has been won from the widest draw of all.

There are a number of other feature races on the card but at this stage only nominations for the two three-year-old races – the Graham Beck Stakes and the Starling Stakes for fillies – have been announced. Both are Grade 3 races over 1400m and carry prize money of R250,000.

De Kock has also entered Soqrat and Alyaasaat here but the pair have drawn No 19 and No 9 respectively so he might prefer to go for the Charity Mile. However, he will be happy that Ghaalla has drawn beautifully at No 6 for the Graham Beck Stakes and at No 5 for the Starling Stakes, which does leave him with options.

Smart Chimichuri Run – no luck with draw

Equally, Tarry will be pretty disappointed Chimichuri Run is drawn No 21 and Cirillo at No 26. However, Celtic Sea is drawn No 12 for the fillies’ race and, with a few withdrawals, she could end up with a decent draw.