Mother Of All Sales?
Cape Thoroughbred Sales has announced a series of races to raise and elevate the status of the forthcoming Book 2 sale. This was the breaking news announcement made at a press conference in Johannesburg earlier today.
Billed by the company as the ‘greatest racing challenge SA has ever seen’ and in a move to induce buyers and to create excitement, one race will be run per year with a R2.5 million stake on offer to graduates of the sale.
The first will be run in Johannesburg in February 2015, then in the same month in Cape Town in 2016 and the third in Durban in 2017.
They will be run over 1400m.
Three crops of qualifying yearlings from the 2013, 2014 and 2015 Cape Premier Yearling Sale Book 2 sales will be competing in three Three-year-old Challenge Series races for a total of R7.5 million in Prize money. The first race, for graduates of the 2013 Cape Premier Yearling Sale Book 2, is to be contested over 1400m in Johannesburg duringFebruary 2015.
Graduates of the 2014 Cape Premier Yearling Sale Book 2, will compete over 1400m in Cape Town in early February 2016, while graduates from the 2015 Book 2 Sale will be competing over 1400m in Durban during February 2017.
Each race will carry prize money totalling R2.5 million, with the winner earning R1.1 million and the runner up R500k.
The rest of the stake will then be divided between the next eight finishers, with the tenth placed horse earning R50,000.
As a further incentive, a R1 million bonus will be paid to the trainer of the 2013 Book 2 graduate with the highest gross earnings at the end of the 3YO year. This will only be applicable to horses racing in South Africa.
The newly formed Cape Thoroughbred Sales and the long established Bloodstock SA are the dominant sales companies in South Africa.
The 2013 CAPE PREMIER YEARLING SALE Book 2 will be held at Durbanville Racecourse on Saturday 23 March and Sunday 24 March.
