R10.6m boost for KZN season stakes pot

The national economy is in the dwang and business and societal confidence is low, but horse racing is here to help.

A glimmer of light lit up a gloomy landscape this week when mega-bookmaker Hollywoodbets announced that it was injecting R10.6-million additional prize money into the imminent KwaZulu-Natal Champions Season – the traditional season-concluding galloping jamboree on the East Coast.

It’s an interesting show of optimism in light of a national poll in a few weeks’ time that “could be anything”, as racing parlance has it. KZN has form to consider.

R35-million purse

It brings the total purse for the winter season’s feature race programme to R35-million, topping a high set in pre-Covid 2019. What operator Gold Circle hypes as “one of the world’s premier racing festivals” boasts 38 graded stakes races, of which 13 are at the elite Grade 1 level.

Just as importantly for many owners and trainers, Hollywoodbets brand manager Devin Heffer announced that stakes for minor races over the three-month period had also been boosted.

“We are proud to play a role in once again encouraging the participation of raiders from around the country to set up their stables on the East Coast for the big season,” said Heffer, adding that the goal was to have “the best of the best battle it out”.

Of course, Hollywoodbets has already played a key role in funding racing’s recent recovery from near extinction in both Western Cape and KZN, so the company has a considerable investment to back.

Durban July climax

The season officially starts on Saturday 4 May at Durban’s Greyville racecourse with the historic WSB Guineas and the Drill Hall Stakes topping the card.

Minor, pre-season, feature races are already being contested at both Greyville and Scottsville courses and national champion trainer Justin Snaith has moved his raiding string from Cape Town to the Summerveld Training Centre at Hillcrest – and has started plundering the local stakes pot.

The festival reaches a climax on 6 July with the Grade 1 R5-Hollywoodbets Durban July, Africa’s most prestigious horse race. The purse for this is R5-million.

It all wraps up on the last Sunday of July with the Champions Cup and the Gold Cup, the latter being South Africa’s premier long-distance race.