Summerveld trainers Louis Goosen and Garth Puller have given the rejuvenated Hollywoodbets Greyville polytrack a thumbs-up and both horsemen expressed their appreciation of the investment being made by Hollywood in facilities and excitement at the ‘wonderful things’ happening in KZN.
News broke on Thursday that the acquisition of Gold Circle by the Hollywood Sportsbook Holdings group (Hollywood/Hollywoodbets) has been approved by the KwaZulu-Natal Economic Regulatory Authority and that it was all systems go for what is expected to be a new era for the sport in the Holiday Province.
No kick-back and happy horses and jockeys! (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
One of the projects that was already initiated in February was the overhaul of the Hollywoodbets Greyville Polytrack.
Launched in 2014, the all-weather enjoyed a love-hate relationship with a wide spectrum of stakeholders over the years and was overdue for an overhaul. The multi million rand project is near completion, and the first racemeeting will be held on Wednesday 7 May. 89 runners have accepted for the 9 races, with the first off at 11h50.
On Thursday, horses were galloped at the track and the feedback was very positive.
Gold Circle Racing Executive Raf Sheik told the Sporting Post that he was thrilled to have received only positive feedback from the trainers and riders.
“The horses pulled up well and the jockeys are happy. One trainer even observed that it’s not a rejuvenated track – it feels like a new track! We are extremely grateful to Hollywoodbets and are very excited in advance of Saturday’s Champions Season launch and then Wednesday 7 May’s opening meeting on the polytrack, “ added Sheik who said that they were looking forward to high quality and fair racing on a polytrack that will play an important role in ensuring that all stakeholders enjoyed a diversified and year round racing product.
Airborne! Two happy horses are put through their paces on the ‘new’ polytrack (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
“There was no kick-back and the horses were happy. That’s music to my ears,” added veteran Garth Puller.
In-form trainer Louis Goosen said on his social media platform that the polytrack at Hollywoodbets Greyville has been completely upgraded by Hollywoodbets and ‘the results look quite amazing’.
‘On Thursday 1 May 2025 a few Trainers brought some horses to gallop on the track and to ‘test’ the new surface.
We galloped 4 of our horses on the surface and we were very impressed at the low levels of kick-back and also at how our horses moved on the surface. We will definitely have some runners on Wednesday 7 May!’
Here is the polytrack trial gallop:
