Super Saturday to impact 2014/15 Equus Awards

The reason this needs to be clarified is due to the official racing season in South Africa running from August 1 until July 31, meaning the meeting, postponed from July 25, now actually falls in the new 2015/2016 season.

The Equus Champion racehorses of various categories are decided by the collective opinions of the Equus panellists. The panellists will consider the performances of horses running in Saturday’s Gr 1 Premier’s Champions Stakes and Gr 1 Thekwini Stakes when deciding the 2014/2015 Equus Champion Two-year-old Award Winners, despite these horses officially turning three years of age on the day of the meeting.

The performances of horses in the Gr 1 eLan Property Group Gold Cup over 3200m will be considered in the decision making process for the 2014/2015 Equus Champion Stayer Award. Likewise the performances of runners in the Gr 1 Champions Cup over 1800m and the Gr 2 Gold Bracelet over 2000m will be considered in the decision making processes for such 2014/2015 Equus Awards as the Champion Older Male, Champion Older Filly/Mare, Champion Middle Distance Horse and the Horse Of The Year.

Some of the Equus Awards are based on statistics. The NHA statistics are the official ones used and will decide such Equus titles as Champion Trainer, Champion Jockey, Champion Apprentice, Champion Breeder, Champion Stallion and Owner Of The Year. Therefore, the Super Saturday races will not count towards these particular 2014/2015 Equus Awards. However, the Super Saturday racing will count towards such opinion based 2014/2015 Equus Awards as Outstanding Breeder and Outstanding Stallion.