Only one in a million

They will be coming from far and wide to run their horses in the Monaco Million Maiden Sprint over 1160m at Turffontein on Saturday 3 November.

With R1 million up for grabs it came as no surprise 69 horses were nominated to run. However, this race is strongly supported by Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene of Monaco to favour the underdogs in racing so, along with her father, Mike Wi stock, a decision was taken that when the final 20 runners were drawn, no trainer would have more than one runner.

There were 38 trainers who entered horses for this race so, when the draw was made, the first horse drawn from any trainer would be the runner from that stable.

Should any other runner from that stable then come out of the hat, that runner would be dis-carded and another horse would be drawn.It was quite a novel idea and it was supported by most people at the draw.

So while the Mike de Kocks, Sean Tarrys, Bre Crawfords and Geoff Woodruff s only had one runner, so did the likes of Craig Mayhew, David Nieuwenhuizen, Stanley Ferreira, Devin Little and Kimberley trainer Heinrich van der Westhuizen.

“I’ve never even heard of Heinrich van der Westhhuizen but to have a guy like that winning this race would be what we are hoping for,” said Wittstock.

“It’s about the small trainers who only have a few horses and it would be in the spirit of the race if one of them were to win it. “I’m delighted with the way the draw worked out.”

Van der Westhuizen’s runner is Libra Lover who, a er a number of the ordinary runs, has placed in his last two starts.

The horse may be well out on merit racing but the trainer has wasted no time ensuring he will have a top jockey as he has declared Piere Strydom to ride his runner.

Trainers who missed out on a runner include Paul Peter, who nominated seven horses, Candice Bass-Robinson, Johan Janse van Vuuren, Yve e Bremner and Duncan Howells.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.