Gold Cup a fitting finale to season

Astronomical amounts – at least by South African standards – will be wagered on the Gold Cup race meeting at Greyville in Durban today on the last day of the 2020-21 racing season.

It’s a fitting finale to the racing season, which runs from 1 August to today, with an all-feature-race programme that includes Africa’s premier race for equine marathon runners and five Grade 1 events.

The meeting has been classified as a World Pool event by the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC), which boasts the biggest tote pools on the planet. Punters in the one-time British colony will be able to play the normal range of HKJC tote bets on races 2 to 10 at Greyville.

Tote punters in SA will be able to play Win, Place, Swinger and Quinella bets through TAB directly into the massive Hong Kong pools – and they can bet huge amounts without significantly depressing the payout.

That’s because of the sheer magnitude of the Hong Kong pools, which will range on average from about R8 million for a Win pool to some R12 million for the Quinella.

Nearly R600 million in total is set to be bet on the tote of which Hong Kong punters will put down an astonishing R450 million, with over R100 million being wagered in SA and elsewhere internationally.

There will be mega TAB pools locally as well. The Pick 6 starts with a R5 million carryover and should soar past the R15 million mark now that TABs are open again.

Nebras is dominating betting on the 3200m Gold Cup and is around 22-10 favourite on the strength of a comfortable victory in the 3 000m Gold Vase on Durban July day four weeks ago.

Got The Greenlight and Do It Again, third and fourth respectively in the Durban July, are set to fight out the finish of the HKJC World Pool Champions Cup. Do It Again ran into more trouble than his rival in the July and could turn the tables but expect it to be close.