On Saturday, 25 May, Scottsville Racecourse was the venue for the first of the bonus races in the 2013 competition. Finding the winner of the Gr1 Golden Horse Casino Sprint was worth 20 points plus the additional 5 bonus points. Majority of entrants had their hopes pinned on Cape Royal (Royal Academy) and all of Snowdon (Western Winter), Royal Zulu Warrior (Mossman), Tevez (Ceasour), and Barbosa (Captain Al) were popular choices amongst racing fans.
However, the afore-mentioned were disappointing and it was a repeat of last year’s combination of owners, Markus and Ingrid Jooste, and trainer, Charles Laird that scored the maximum points with Contador (Var). Second placed Wild Type (Strike Smartly) scored 14 points and third placed Merhee (Elusive Quality) scored 10 points. In the Gr.1 South African Fillies Sprint, Via Africa (Var) was all the rage and started as competition and SAFTote favourite and she did not disappoint her followers.
Going over 1000M for the first time in her career, she silenced her critics who thought that the distance may be a furlong too far with a smashing victory, scoring 20 points. Second place went to the winner of the Gr2 KRA Guineas, Festival Of Fire, scoring 14 points and the daughter of Kahal is now the leading horse by points in the competition.
Princess Victoria (Victory Moon) was third, scoring 10 points. The next major point scoring race meeting in the competition will feature the Gr1 Daily News 2000, Gr1 Woolavington 2000 and the Gr3 Lonsdale Stirrup Cup worth a total of 105 points at Greyville Racecourse on Saturday, 1 June (day/night). The entire Leader Board can now be viewed on the Charity Turf Challenge home page, click on Leader Board and at the bottom of the page open PDF file. The second spot prize draw took place on Saturday, 25 May (Scottsville) on Tellytrack before the start of Race 5. This is a computer generated, random draw from all entrants and not dependent on points earned. The three winners of a R500 telephone betting deposits (each) kindly sponsored by TAB GOLD “The Intelligent Bet” are Bin Punter 2, PJ One, Logan & Perosha. CONGRATULATIONS to all winners! The next spot prize draw will be on Saturday, 1 June at Greyville Racecourse.
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
