The Racing South Africa team is still processing all manual entries and payments received before doing an internal audit of the competition. We apologise for the delay and THANK racing fans for their patience in advance.
Since the start of the 2012 CTC, there have been very few points scoring opportunities. However, the highlight of the weekend was the Gr.3 East Cape Derby run at Arlington Racecourse on Sunday 13 May. The good form of the late Roy Eckstein and his trainer, Vaughan Marshall, also the leading trainer in the CTC, continued when Tribal Dance (Tiger Dance) showed his class over 2400m with an effortless win to frank the form of the two top Cape performers, Jackson and Variety Club. Tribal Dance will now travel to KZN for the balance of the Champions Season and whilst the stable will be eyeing a few options, his main mission could be the Gr.2 Betting World Derby to be run on Sunday 24 June at Clairwood Racecourse. Tribal Dance scored 9 points and Indian Hawk (Black Minnaloushe) scored 5 points for second. As Forest Digger (Classic Flag) was not part of the competition, no points were earned for his third place.
Some of the popular choices in this year’s competition would have left their fans with mixed feelings after their below par prep runs. Taipan (Dynasty) and Antious (Pure Prize) in particular featured highly on many entrants’ teams and they will have to improve significantly if they are to earn the big points on offer in the forthcoming feature races.
On the other side of the coin, however, the followers of Variety Club (Var) will have been thrilled to learn that the connections of the outstanding miler have decided to delay his international campaign and it is expected that his next start will be in the Gr.1 Rising Sun Challenge to be run on 9 June. On the weekend, fans that included English Garden (Camden Park), Castlethorpe (Not A Single Doubt) and Vettel (Known Heights) could be in the pound seats as all 3 horses impressed in their respective races.
The next major point scoring race in the competition will be the Gr.2 Betting World 1900 to be run at Greyville Racecourse on Tuesday, 22 May and then of course, on Saturday 26 May it is the first of the Bonus Races, the Gr.1 Golden Horse Casino Sprint, worth 25 points to the winner.
The leading horses by points of the competition thus far are:
www.racingsouthafrica.co.za
A provisional leader board (subject to verification during final audit) will be available shortly.
The first of the spot prize draws took place on Friday, 11 May (Greyville night racing) on Tellytrack before the start of Race 4. 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:
• Christos 3
• Sporting Bet
Congratulations to both 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
2012 Champions Season Charity Turf Challenge sponsored by Gold Circle.
