Turffontein Racecourse plays host to a ten-race programme this afternoon.
The main event of the day is Race 7 which is the Gr2 Senor Santa Stakes over 1160m and the field includes a number of likely contenders for the Gr1 ComputaForm Sprint on Champions Day.
The headline feature race is named in honour of a modern day legend of the South African turf, Senor Santa who reigned as our Champion Sprinter for many seasons and won his final Gr1 as an eight-year-old.
The charismatic seven-time Gr1 winner ai honoured annually at Turffontein.
Senor Santa wins the 1993 Gr1 Computaform Sprint
Many of the more senior amongst us will remember Senor Santa (Gavin Howes) and particularly his sensational defeat by Northern Princess (Michael Roberts) in the Winning Form Match Race Challenge 34 years ago at Hollywoodbets Greyville.
The star’s lack of stamina cost him the race in the dying strides, and it’s a novel contest that seasoned racing folk still recount with much sentimentality.
Watch that here if you haven’t seen it:
On Saturday, the Senor Santa Stakes, heads a bumper programme on the Turffontein standside track, and it is the top-class Princess Calla, back from a successful Cape season campaign, who catches the eye under Richard Fourie.
She was not beaten far in the Gr1 Pongracz Cape Flying Championship last time. A Gr1 winner on the Highveld, she could be too good for this lot.
Princess Calla – Richard Fourie rides today (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
With fillies and mares getting a 2.5kg sex allowance in the Senor Santa, it come as no surprise that the four best-weighted runners are females and they could fight it out with preference for the pair trained by Sean Tarry, Big Burn and Princess Calla. Both have excellent form in sprints and have run well against the colts.
Trainer Sean Tarry saddles Billy Spellbound in the Listed Derby Trial. He should have finished closer in the Non-Black Type Egoli Mile last time as he was carried inwards at the 350m mark.
The son of William Longsword won his maiden over 1800m and will be at home over 2000m. He has cracked a good draw of four which is a big plus. With a bit of luck in running, he can return to winning ways.
Billy Bowlegs – a big runner today (Pic -JC Photos)
It is an early start at 11h35 and Pontiac from the Johan Janse van Vuuren stable should give punters a good start to the day.
The son of What A Winter produced a promising debut effort over 1000m on the Inside course. He was slow into stride, but the manner in which he finished off his race was eye-catching. The form of that race has been franked. He found plenty of betting support which suggests that he was showing good work at home. With the natural improvement that is expected, he should take a power of beating.
Please note that jockeys not riding included Diego De Gouveia, Siyanda Sosibo and Randall Simons.
| Weather | Mostly sunny, 16-30 degs, 17-33km/h Westerly Head Wind. Sunset@ 6:29pm | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rainfall | Last 24 Hours: Nil | Last 7 Days: 23,9mm | |
| Irrigation | Last 24 Hours: Nil | Last 7 Days: 12mm | |
| Penetrometer Reading | 21 | ||
| Track Condition | Good | ||
| False Rail | Zero on the back straight to 2m on the bend with a 2m spur at the 700m mark | ||
- The Bipot starts in the second race at 12h10
- The Place Accumulator starts in the third race at 12h40
- The Pick 6 starts in the fourth race at 13h15
- The first Jackpot starts in the fifth race at 13h50
- The second Jackpot starts in the seventh race at 15h05
A reminder again that the revamped free-to-enter Hollywoodbets Punters’ Challenge is now run on all local racemeetings, as well as on Singapore and Hong Kong fixtures.
The new prize payouts formulae means that besides the R5 000 daily must-be-won prize, which is allocated to the top 20 finishers on the leaderboard for every challenge race meeting, the all-or-nothing 100% clean sheet jackpot prize will now be determined by the number of runners at the race meeting, multiplied by R10 000 per unit, for all venues.
For example, there are currently 99 starters for today’s Turffontein meeting.
At R10 000 per starter, the jackpot prize will be R1 990 000.
And as an added incentive, every player who wagers R50 or more on the Bet Slip generated by the Hollywoodbets Punters’ Challenge entry, will automatically have their potential winning payout from the competition, doubled!
So now Saturday’s jackpot is potentially R1 980 000!
Click here to find out more about the Hollywoodbets Punters’ Challenge.
