World Pool status for Daily News race meeting

South African horseracing has received a significant boost with the news the Hong Kong Jockey Club, which boasts the biggest tote pools in the world, has classified the Daily News 2000 at Hollywoodbets Greyville Racecourse in Durban on Saturday 29 May as a World Pool event.

This will result in TAB Win, Place, Swinger and Quinella pools being commingled into Hong Kong’s massive tote pools, thus enabling South African punters to wager substantial amounts on these bet types without significantly affecting payouts.

The Daily News race meeting is one of the major days on the South African horseracing calendar and is headlined by the Grade 1 Daily News 2000 for three-year-olds.

Two other feature races will be run on the day – the Grade 1 Woolavington for three-year-old fillies, also over 2000m, and the Grade 3 Lonsdale Stirrup Cup over 2400m.

All three races are traditionally outstanding pointers to the Vodacom Durban July, Africa’s greatest horse race, and other feature races.

South African horseracing will earn a substantial commission from Hong Kong Jockey Club tote betting on the meeting and a portion of the net proceeds will be set aside to assist South African Equine Health and Protocols (SAEHP) with the development of export protocols to facilitate the export of South African horses globally.

Phumelela’s Dean Sawarjith, who was responsible for putting the World Pool contract in place with the Hong Kong Jockey Club, said: “On behalf of South African horseracing I would like to thank the Hong Kong Jockey Club for adding the Daily News 2000 race meeting to the list of World Pool events.

“It is a welcome boost to our industry on several levels and strengthens a long-standing relationship between horseracing in Hong Kong and South Africa, which traces back to the 1980s when South African rider Bartie Leisher won the Hong Kong Jockeys’ Championship.

“Since then South African jockeys and trainers like Robbie Fradd, Basil Marcus, Douglas Whyte, David Ferraris and Tony Millard among others have collectively played a huge role in Hong Kong horseracing,” Sawarjith added.

Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, Chief Executive Officer of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, said: “The Hong Kong Jockey Club is pleased that funds from its simulcast of South African racing into Hong Kong will support the critically important steps being taken by the South African industry to restore direct horse exports.

“I also want to acknowledge the National Horseracing Authority of Southern Africa, which will play a key role in overseeing leading preparations for major audits by the European Union and the United Kingdom that are needed for the re-opening of South Africa’s equine market to the world, which has been identified by the Asian Racing Federation as a key issue relating to the international movement of horses,” he added.

Richard Cheung, Executive Director of Customer and International Business Development at the Hong Kong Jockey Club, also welcomed the Daily News race meeting’s World Pool status: “The World Pool concept has been very successful in creating global racing events with huge tote liquidity. We welcome the opportunity to partner with the South African racing industry as we expand the World Pool into new markets which will include international commingling partners from Australasia, North America, Asia, mainland Europe and the United Kingdom.”

Gold Circle Racing Executive Raf Sheik said: “Collaboration between totalisator operators in the form of World Pools on major racedays is a massive attraction for punters to take totalisator bets on such days.

“And such World Pools are the way forward for totalisator betting at a time when totalisator operators in South Africa and many other jurisdictions around the world are facing mounting challenges,” he added.