Charities set to win big at the Peermont Emperors Palace Charity Mile

Sporting personalities, actors, TV presenters and radio broadcasters will gather at Turffontein Racecourse in Johannesburg tomorrow hoping the charity they represent will grab the lion’s share of the R1 million up for grabs in the Peermont Emperors Palace Charity Mile.

Each of the 16 runners in race 7 will be connected to a charity and if they have drawn the winning horse, they will collect R150 000.

The second-placed runner will get R100 000 for the linked charity, R80 000 for third and R70 000 for fourth. After that every participating charity will get a cheque for R50 000.

The Citizen is involved as one of the media partners and has drawn the Highveld horse Care Unit as its charity. No Worries is the horse and Vilje Maritz and Carine Rous are the celebrities involved.

Phakaaathi is also a media partner and will represent the School Uniform Project with SuperSport anchor Carol Tshabalala as the celebrity. The horse they have drawn is Captain Aldo.

There is also a Pick 6 carryover of R850 000 with a megapool of R3.5 million forecast. Rabada, trained by Brett Crawford, is the 9/2 favourite with Betting World. New Predator is at 11/2 and Champagne Haze at 6/1.

Commenting on the draw, Crawford said: “It’s as shockingly simple as that. Nobody has to kid anybody – a bad draw is a bad draw.

“However, Anton has ridden more winners than I’ve had breakfasts so I won’t be telling him anything.” Two interesting events come in race 1 and race 2. These are Maiden Plates and are for horses who have not won a race.

They are sponsored by Her Royal Highness Princess Charlene of Monaco. Each race carries a R250 000 prize. “In racing all the big money goes to the good horses. Charlene likes to fight for the underdog so she wanted to give a chance to the hard-knocking horses,” said her father, Mike Whittstock