Celebs for the Charity Mile

The Peermont Emperors Palace Charity Mile to be run over 1600m at Turffontein this Saturday is a glorious event that brings together top racehorses, famous people and corporate sponsors in aid of charity.

It’s a unique and exciting way for horseracing to help people and animals less fortunate than ourselves and this is how it works:

* The Charity Mile is a normal race in every sense. What’s special is that each runner also races on behalf of a charity and its finishing position determines how much the charity wins. To add glitz and glamour, each runner has a corporate sponsor and is publicly represented by a celebrity.
* A total of R550 000 will be given away to the 16 participating charities. The charity of the winning horse gets R100 000 and the joy, excitement and tears of the representatives of the winning charity are the most touching moments in horseracing annually.

Here’s what each charity gets: 1^ST R100 000; 2^ND R70 000; 3^RD R50 000; 4^TH R40 000; 5^TH R30 000; 6^TH R29 000; 7^TH R28 000; 8^TH R27 000; 9^TH R26 000; 10^TH R25 000; 11^TH R25 000;’ 12^TH R20 000; 13^TH R20 000
; 14^TH R20 000; 15^TH R20 000; 16^TH R20 000.

Profiles of the celebrities coming to Charity Mile are below, as well as a list of the runners and their celebrities, corporate sponsors and the charities each horse is representing: 

Have a good laugh with Alfred at Charity Mile

Multi-lingual and hilarious actor Alfred Ntombela will keep racegoers in fits of laughter when he represents Link Man a horse in the Peermont Emperors Palace Charity Mile.
Alfred, with his fast-paced joker-like laugh, is on a high after rave reviews for his role as Minister Mda, the hapless and accident-prone Minister of Tourism in newly released Leon Schuster movie “Mad Buddies”. This movie follows candid genre films like “Sweet ‘N Short”, “Mama Jack”, “Oh Shucks! Here Comes UNTAG (Kwagga Strikes Back)” in which he played Bambo, “Mr Bones” one and two, and as Shorty in “Schuks Tshabalala’s Survival Guide to South Africa”, which coincided with the FIFA World Cup Soccer.
Fluent in Zulu, English and Afrikaans, Alfred won the M-Net Film Award for the Best Supporting Performance in “Sweet ‘N Short” in 1991-2.
While it was rumoured that he had died in August 2010, he is still very much alive and represented a horse at last year’s event, enjoying the experience so much that he’ll be back for more when the race is run this Saturday. Not in the saddle, though, even if he could be mistaken for a jockey because of his diminutive size (1.40m). Come, have a laugh with him!

Nothing risqué about Amor at the races

Singer, actress and media personality Amor Vittone will be taking a break from her cabaret show “Amorisque” at Emperors Palace to represent a horse in the Emperors Palace Charity Mile.
Amor takes her audience on a whirlwind tour from Burlesque to Moulin Rouge, rock to roses and Chicago to Benoni in her glittering cabaret show.
“Amorisque” combines most of her talents. A former Ms Johannesburg, she was SA’s champion tap and modern-dance champion for seven years and has starred in “West Side Story” at the State Theatre, as well as Richard Loring’s acclaimed “Girl Talk”. Other stage productions include “Strictly Tap Dance Fever” and “Streets Of Gold”.
She has produced seven albums, including “Voluit”, which reached gold status (more than 20,000 units sold) within six months and the video of “Voluit Lewe” was named the best Afrikaans music video in May 2007. Her new album “Coming Home” is in the pipe-line.
Mother of two, she is a well-known visitor to TV audience’s lounges as well, having presented a number of programmes, and has her own popular show on Jacaranda FM.
Enthusiastic and energetic, she still finds time to work as a choreographer, MC and motivational speaker. She’ll be hoping her horse in Charity Mile, outsider Royal Bencher, is as light on its feet as she is and wins one of the bigger prizes for its charity.

Catch livewire Anele at Charity Mile

Unique and engaging deejay and budding author Anele Mododa, who has re-joined the 94.7 Highveld Stereo team to take over the flagship Afternoon Drive Time show, will be a vibrant drawcard at the Peermont Emperors Palace Charity Mile.
She started her radio career in 2004 as a deejay at the University of Pretoria where she was studying politics and international relations and then teamed up on air with Grant Nash, with whom she worked on 94.7 Highveld Stereo and then 5FM.
She has featured prominently on television as well – as a presenter for SABC3’s popular magazine show “Top Billing” and co-host with Rob van Vuuren of the SABC2 reality competition “SA’s Got Talent” as well as teaming up with professional dancer Brandon Eilers on “Strictly Come Dancing” in 2008.
A sports fan, who cites cricket and soccer as her favourites, this energetic woman devotes a portion of her spare time to serving others.
No stranger to horseracing, having represented a runner in last year’s Charity Mile, she’ll be putting in the time at Charity Mile at Turffontein this Saturday. You’ll have to be quick to catch this livewire, though.

Bailey’s effervescence will lighten the mood at Charity Mile

Bailey Schneider, “the girl with the golden voice and infectious laugh” on digital radio station 2oceansvibe Radio, was born to entertain and her skills will certainly be put to good use in the moments before the Peermont Emperors Palace Charity Mile when the tension will be palpable.
Crystal Award-winning “Little Miss Sunshine”, as she has been nicknamed because “I really do believe that being positive and happy is a choice”, represented DJ Detzky and Khangezile Primary After Care Center, Kwathema, in last year’s Charity Mile and saw her charity take home a cheque for R25,000.
One of the 50 Hottest Celebrity Dates and among the 100 Sexiest Women in the World in 2006 and 2007, Bailey co-presented the Afternoon Drive Show on 94.7 Highveld Stereo until March this year and has also done some TV work – presenting, interviewing, making cameo appearances on soapies and as a judge. Fifth in the Top Billing Presenter Search 2010, she went on to be the Johannesburg TV Presenter for SABC3’s Breakfast show “Expresso” until April 2011.
Her effervescent charm will be a great asset to her horse’s connections at the Charity Mile.

Brian Mitchell to be a knock out at Charity Mile

Former champion boxer Brian Mitchell has represented a horse in the Charity Mile for the past three years and although his horse has not yet won – they have earned their charities R20,000 on each occasion – he is an enthusiastic supporter of the race. That’s why he’ll be back at Turffontein this Saturday yelling his horse home.
Nowadays Mitchell, who finished his boxing career in 1996 with 46 wins, two draws and a solitary loss and was inducted into boxing’s International Hall Of Fame in 2009, is a boxing manager for four professional boxers, a commentator and publicist for Rodney Berman’s Golden Gloves Promotions, being a phenomenal role model to young pugilists who aspire to the same heights. After all, he knows that it’s not merely about what gifts you are given, but it’s all about how you use them.
Also a keen golfer with a handicap of 10, he is still described as having “an incredible conviction to win’’, and Brian will be putting that fierce mental energy into willing Golden Crest, the horse he represents in Saturday’s Charity Mile, to win the R100,000 first prize for Reahile Primary.

Charity Mile a penalty kick for Carol

Award-winning Carol Tshabalala has a passion for sport and she could be adding horseracing to her list of favourites – football, boxing and rugby – after representing a horse in the Peermont Emperors Palace Charity Mile this Saturday.
Anchor of the lifestyle show, “Love PSL”, on DStv every Tuesday, Carol is a regular presenter on a variety of other programmes on Supersport.
Carol began in broadcasting in 2000 for the youth sports programme “Sportsbuzz” and was soon a field reporter for “Soccer Special”, which led to her becoming the first female sports anchor of “Mabaleng”. Another show she has worked on is immensely popular “Laduma”.
A host of the 2003 and 2008 “Miss South Africa” and “Miss South Africa Teen” pageants, last year Carol co-hosted the world-acclaimed FIFA Ballon D’or in Zurich with CNN anchor Pedro Pinto and was a guest of honour in Zurich this year. This year she covered a range of codes at the Olympic Games in London and interviewed top athletes like Usain Bolt, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Yohan Blake, Chad Le Clos and Michael Phelps.
As a radio journalist, Carol moved from Kaya fm, where she compiled and presented daily sports bulletins for the breakfast show to Radio 2000 where she now anchors daily show “Beyond The Game”, the first dedicated drive-time sports show in SA.
Hopefully Carol’s horse Silent Partner will score in Charity Mile.

Dan will be hoping for a hole in one at Charity Mile

Master Of Ceremonies, broadcaster and writer Dan Nicholl will be keen to get an opportunity to “spoof” a race commentary when he represents a horse at this year’s Peermont Emperors Palace Charity Mile.
Dan, born in Belfast and raised in Zimbabwe, is a well-known scribe (having worked as sports editor at iafrica.com, been editor-in-chief of “Golf Punk” and contributing editor at “Player Magazine” as well as writing columns and features for “Compleat Golfer”) and sports presenter on radio (Cape Talk) and TV (eTV).
Still author of the satirical “Dan’s World” for iafrica.com and a columnist for Sports Illustrated as well as a number of other magazines, Dan travels widely to emcee events in in South Africa, Europe and the Middle East.
He is an ambassador for the JAG Foundation and is the founder of the Investec JAG Invitational golf events, which debuted in South Africa and England this year. The JAG Foundation was established with the aim of using sport as a catalyst to teach children to engage in physical activity, absorbing its values and benefits in order to produce holistically healthy individuals who believe in themselves and their future.
Perhaps his charity can score a “hole in one” and take the biggest prize in the Charity Mile with Smanjemanje.

Gerry to bring her message to Charity Mile

Humanitarian and activist Gerry Elsdon has addressed audiences at the General Assembly in New York, UN Head Quarters and Geneva in Switzerland, so representing a horse in the Peermont Emperors Palace Charity Mile next month will be a walk in the park.
A radio and TV presenter, this jewellery designer is also a sought-after master of ceremonies, motivational speaker and advocate for tuberculosis (TB), a disease with a stigma but one she successfully overcame.
A former editor of “Soul Magazine’’, she is a born teacher who is determined to inspire an interest in the arts amongst young people and to encourage creativity as a means of expressions, while also instilling a culture of learning and teaching business skills to equip young performers and artists for the future.
To that end, in 2006 Gerry launched Cinnamon Communications (Learn, Grow and Experience the Essence of Life), a company that runs self-improvement and team-building workshops.
Appointed the patron of Othandweni Children’s Home in 2005, Gerry currently holds active directorships in Hlobisile Transport Management, a young trucking company carving a niche for itself, and is Director: Marketing for Centurion Academy, a Pretoria based tertiary institution.
Meet this dynamic woman at the Charity Mile raceday when she will represent Roman Wall.

Lynné will keep it real at Charity Mile

Mrs SA 2011-12 Lynné de Jage – businesswoman, model and actress – is a perfect mix of girly and tough and prides herself on the fact that she is a “real woman with real curves” because she believes beauty comes from within. So she is committed to promoting a healthy body image among women, changing the perception about what being a real woman is all about.
And she’ll be promoting those ideals at Turffontein on 3 November when she represents a horse in the Peermont Emperors Palace Charity Mile.
Lynné is associated with the Hunger & Thirst Foundation and has been in music videos as well as played roles in “Getroud Met Rugby”, “Villa Rosa” and “Angel Of The Skies”, which will be in cinemas in the near future. She has also made numerous TV appearances, including hosting the BEE segment on Kyknet’s “Ontbytsake”.
She runs a successful graphic design and laser-cutting company, Lollipop Ideas, and in her spare time enjoys woodwork and biking with her husband Wilhelm.
She believes success is based on the shape of your character and the size of your heart – and she’ll be hoping Potala Palace has loads of character and a huge heart when Charity Mile is run!

Mark makes Pilgrimage for charity

Mark Pilgrim, 94.7 Highveld Stereo and 94.5 Kfm deejay, is a survivor and his enthusiasm for embracing everything life has to offer will keep everyone’s spirits up in those tense minutes leading up to the Peermont Emperors Palace Charity Mile.
Born in England, Mark immigrated to South Africa aged nine. Even then his ambition was to be a deejay, but that only came about after he “beat” cancer over 20 years ago – at 18 he was diagnosed with stage four testicular cancer which spread to his lungs and kidneys.
The Weekend Graveyard gave him a toe-in on 5FM in 1995 and he stayed with the station until he switched channels in 2003, also presenting the popular 80s Hour on Saturday afternoons and Weekend Breakfast. Television was a natural progression and Mark has hosted 10 shows including Big Brother South Africa series one and two, Big Brother Africa and Power Of 10 on Mnet.
Also an MC and conference facilitator as well as a motivational speaker, Mark already supports a couple of charities as a friend of The Reach for a Dream Foundation and a patron of CANSA.
He’ll be making a “Pilgrimage” to Turffontein on Saturday to represent Pierre Jourdan, winner of the race last year. Join him!

Neil will be back at Charity Mile again

Popular TV presenter Neil Andrews has been a celebrity at all seven Peermont Emperors Palace Charity Miles and since his personal passion is horseracing, he would not miss out on representing a horse at Turffontein this Saturday.
This year has been a busy one for Neil, who has been with M-Net Supersport for 21 years. He was one of the key presenters at this year’s London 2012 Olympic Games, having anchored a daily show, “Mind The Gap”. His other highlights include appearing on South Africa’s first celebrity “Come Dine With Me” and launching the new morning show “First Call” on TellyTrack. Other programmes he anchors are the super-successful show “Monday Night Football” and “Betting World with Neil Andrews”.
Horseracing’s dedicated television station, DStv channel 139, gave Neil his first opportunity on television. He had started his broadcasting career as a racing commentator in Cape Town, but in 1991 relocated to Johannesburg to become the front-man and executive producer at International Gaming Network (IGN), now TellyTrack. His career sky-rocketed a couple of years later when he joined SuperSport to became the anchor and producer of the popular magazine programme “Super Saturday”.
Also a racehorse owner, he has a runner in Charity Mile in The Mouseketeer, who he co-owns. And he’ll be representing Meadow Magic from the yard of champion trainer Mike de Kock. What a thrill for him if either wins.

Nicole will be doing it for charity again

Sexy and vivacious Miss South Africa 2009 Nicole Flint has proved that no mountain is too high, having successfully climbed Mount Kilimanjaro for charity in June, and she will be hoping that The Mouseketeer, the horse she represents in Charity Mile, shows as much determination.
The Mount Kilimanjaro jaunt – a  gruelling seven-day trip during which she sludged through rainforests, heavy mud, extreme cold, snow and ice – followed her completing the Sun City to Table Bay Charity Cycle Tour, a 1400km marathon, last year.
The Pretoria “meisie” has a passion for motivating and empowering everyone she comes into contact with and is a healthy representative of today’s modern woman.
When is not raising money for charity, she is a member of the Jacaranda 94.2 Breakfast Show team and can also be heard on online station Ballz Visual Radio.
This Toastmasters International-trained public speaker also makes regular appearances on TV.  Earlier this year Nicole was a member of the SuperSport team in London for the Olympics. She co-presented “Tropika Island Of Treasure” with DJ Fresh. The show screened on e-tv in February 2012.

Pabi to make a production for Charity

Having started her TV career aged four in a literacy campaign for READ and gone on to present for K-TV, award-winning glamor-girl Pabi Moloi fell in love with radio when she won 94.7 Highveld Stereo’s Hot Jocks talent search. Since then she has hosted various programmes on the radio, has acted in, and produced stage shows and has recorded a song Choppa called “Tire”.
MC at the SA Music Awards in 2005 and a live AIDS day programme that broadcast internationally in 2004, she has not given up on TV and still hosts Mzansi Magic’s glossy lifestyle show “All Access”. She is the anchor for a leading bank’s corporate TV.
One of the highlights of her career was when she emceed an “O Magazine” workshop with Oprah Winfrey, but she has also been named Style Icon and Most Stylish TV Personality at the SA Style Awards. Other accolades she has received include being named one of “Cosmopolitan” magazine’s Fun Fearless Females (2010) and the Woman Of Tomorrow in Olay’s inaugural SA Iconic Women Awards.
Pabi represented a horse at the 2010 Emperors Palace Charity Mile and knows exactly what to expect when the horses are thundering towards the grandstand. She’ll be screaming for her horse Snowdon in this year’s race. Come and cheer with her!

Fall in love with Phuti at Charity Mile

Miss SA Teen 2002 Phuti Khomo is currently looking forward to giving up all the comforts of home to star alongside a number of other famous people in the new reality show “Tropika Island Of Treasure 5” in Jamaica, but before dashing off, she’ll be representing Glorious Jet in the Peermont Emperors Palace Charity Mile.
Voted by FHM as one of the 50 most successful and beautiful women in SA, Phuti is one of the few winners of Miss Teen to go on to become hugely successful.
A presenter on 99.2 YFM Radio and the face of Capitec bank, her current role of fashion designer Carol Chabeli in the SABC soap opera “Muvhango” is only one item on an impressive acting CV.
Her roles in the past have included playing student constable Dineo Molobi in the SABC2 police drama series “Streets Of Manguang”, Bali on M-Net soap opera “Egoli” and as Phaphama Molefe on the SABC1 drama series “Mtunzini.com”. She hosted e-tv’s music show “Ripped” in 2006 and co-hosted the M-Net Series reality show “Rivals In Romance” with Jonaid Carrera.

Hip Hop and join ProVerb at Charity Mile

Bronze Lourie winner ProVerb, one of the front-runners in the African hip-hop revolution, will be hoping Astro News who he represents can sing to his tune and win the R100,000 charity first prize at the Peermont Emperors Palace Charity Mile.
Kimberley-born Tebogo Thekiso, aka ProVerb, was part of the Charity Mile team last year when he represented well-fancied Dancewiththedevil, who finished fifth and earned R29,000 for Thembakazi Primary School.
Charity Mile this year could coincide with the launch of his fourth album “FourthWrite”, which is due out any day, according to his website. He already has three critically acclaimed albums under his belt – “The Book of ProVerb”, “Manuscript” and “Write of Passage”.
His humility, socially conscious and clean content have earned himself tens of thousands of fans across the world. One of the few rappers who does not use vulgar language, in his song-writing he has managed to strike a balance between maintaining respect amongst his peers and the purists but also drawing fans who do not necessarily enjoy the genre.
Known to “Mnet” and “Mzasi Magic” viewers as the host of “South African Idols” and presenter on “All Access”, ProVerb has co-hosted Miss SA 2010 and 2011 and has been contracted to present the live show again this year.
Take a leaf out of “The Book of ProVerbs” and come and support Charity Mile at Turffontein on Saturday 3 November.

Sindy comes out to play at Charity Mile

Sindy Mabe, co-anchor of one of the fastest-growing breakfast shows – the E-TV news and actuality show “Sunrise” – will be reporting for duty to represent Silver Flyer at the Peermont Emperors Palace Charity Mile.
Previously best-known for anchoring the “Morning Edition” on E-TV from 2003 to 2005 as well as “Weekend Live” on SABC2 from 2005 and as a newsreader on SABC3s “News In 60 Seconds”, this TV presenter and entrepreneur loves to travel and reads avidly.
Sindy was nominated in the category Most Stylish Female Actuality, News Host or Continuity Presenter for the 2005 Sunday Times/ELLE TV Style Awards.
Sindy completed a National Diploma in Retail Business Management at Wits Technikon and has a certificate in Public Relations from Damelin and is putting her business savvy to good use in her cleaning service business – one of her passionate interests is creating jobs and growing in the business environment.
She is an active member of the International Centre for Eye Care Education, a member of the Global Business Roundtable and a patron of the House Of Hope (a shelter for abandoned and abused girls), as well as being an ambassador for the Sunflower Fund and the National Blood Back Service
She might have a reputation of being a workaholic, but Sindy will be having fun at Turffontein this Saturday.

.