It appears that Cape Thoroughbred Sales have hit on a winner! The hype on the eve of this weekend’s Cape Premier Yearling Sale Book 2 is unprecedented.
The new CTS Challenge Series, for graduates of the Cape Premier Yearling Sale Book 2, is an exciting innovation that has been hailed as the greatest racing challenge South Africa has ever seen.
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 during February 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 R500 000. The rest of the stake will then be divided between the next eight finishers, with the tenth placed horse earning R50 000. In an unprecedented move, Cape Thoroughbred Sales also added a Trainers Challenge with the winning trainer being awarded a R1 million bonus.
