The Equus Awards organising committee has started preparing for this year’s Equus Awards to honour the champions of the turf, both human and equine.
The ceremony will be in a virtual format due to the Covid-19 restrictions and we plan to feature the winners during the second week of September.
The voting panel will be represented by members of the media and commentating fraternity and will be announced shortly.
Final decisions will be taken after the feature raceday to be run at Hollywood Bets Greyville on Saturday 29 August.
The Grade 1 Champions Cup, Mercury Sprint, Premier’s Champion Stakes and Thekwini Stakes as well as the Grade 2, 3 and listed races will be deemed to have been run on their original date and will form part of these awards.
Equine categories:
Champion Two-year-old Colt – distance immaterial
Champion Two-year-old Filly – distance immaterial
Champion Three-year-old Colt – distance immaterial
Champion Three-year-old Filly – distance immaterial.
Champion Older Male – distance immaterial
Champion Older Filly/Mare – distance immaterial
Champion Sprinter – (1000 – 1200m; age/gender immaterial)
Champion Miler – (1400 – 1600; age/gender immaterial)
Champion Middle Distance – (1800 – 2200; age/gender immaterial)
Champion Stayer – (2400 and up; age/gender immaterial)
The awards are based on graded races and in particular Grade 1 races.
As regards the stayer category, the winning horse will be at the discretion of the voting panel. This decision was taken as the only Grade 1 race in SA is the SA Derby, which would mean that this should be the obvious winner based on a single run. This would also have excluded fillies and mares.
This year’s selections will not be carried out by the panel submitting nominations as they have done in previous years; instead they will submit their winning selection.
Breeder Awards:
Champion Stallion
Champion Breeder
Champion Broodmare
The additional awards that may be presented by the TBA, which differ slightly on their selection criteria, are Outstanding Breeder, Outstanding Stallion and Outstanding International achievement .
Individual Awards:
Champion Apprentice )
Champion Jockey ) Number of wins
Champion Owner )
Champion Trainer ) Stakes
Horse of the Year
- Media release by Natalie Turner,
