The Ridgemont-sponsored reigning SA Champion Richard Fourie banged home five winners at Fairview on Friday to get 2025 off to a flyer for himself and two happy Hollywoodbets Punters’ Challenge players who banked R350 000 cash each.
Lovegrass comes home powerfully to win the final race at Fairview on Friday (Pic – Pauline Herman)
Players Rumba777 and LMS13 both found the 8 winners on the Fairview card to tie on 91,17 points and share the all-or-nothing Hollywoodbets Punters’ Challenge Jackpot prize of R720 000, becoming the year’s first winners of the popular competition. Six of the eight winners were tote favourites.
“This is straight from heaven,” quipped the 55 year old LMS13, a lifetime player who told the Sporting Post that he had recently endured ‘the worst few years’ of his life, having lost his job during the covid pandemic and endured a divorce.
“This is life-changing. It really is. You have no idea what a difference this will make. Thanks to Hollywoodbets for providing the platform. I should have had the minimum R50 bet which would have doubled my payout, but I am nevertheless very very thankful,” added the former Game Ranger, who loves his racing.
Rumba777, a 64 year old Grandmother from South Beach in Durban, told the Sporting Post that her prayers had been answered and she would now be able to assist her three grandchildren, who she looks after, with a better education.
The former laboratory assistant at a Durban hospital, whose username comes from her love of dancing the Rumba in her younger years, admitted the family was sweating going into the final leg as her selection Articuno was injured en route to the start and then scratched.
In terms of competition rules, she was allocated the tote favourite Lovegrass, on whom Richard Fourie rounded off his five-timer.
“My son Damian guides my Hollywoodbets Punters’ Challenge selections and we are a family who love our racing. I want to send my two younger grandchildren to a better school and I have another who is starting college now. So this windfall could not have been better timed. We must thank Richard Fourie for riding so well, and Hollywoodbets for creating a competition that everybody is talking about as it’s an even playing field for every player,” she concluded.
The Hollywoodbets Punters’ Challenge is a free-to-enter competition that is available on all local racemeetings, as well as Hong Kong fixtures.
The jackpot on local meetings is calculated by the starters on the day, multiplied by R10 000 a head – so at Fairview, there were 70 starters over the 8 races, resulting in a jackpot of R700 000.
All players have a chance of doubling their potential payout, by spending a minimum of R50 on the programmatically generated betslip.
Unfortunately, both Rumba777 and LSM13 failed to wager that amount and lost out on the opportunity of doubling the payout.
Richard Fourie was certainly in fine form at Fairview and would have optimized his confidence ahead of a bid to win the L’Ormarins Gr1 King’s Plate for a second time on Saturday.
Fourie last won the prestigious mile in 2019 on Do It Again and is on a Snaith galloper again in the shape of 4yo past Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas winner Snow Pilot, who jumps from a ‘lucky for some’ 13 gate at 16h10 on Saturday.
Fourie’s Fairview Friday five-timer included a treble for Alan Greeff and a double for Justin Snaith and took the record-breaker to 96 wins (23,82%) and third place on the national log. Craig Zackey and Gavin Lerena (also a five-time at the Vaal 24 hours earlier!) recently reached their respective centuries of winners for the season.
Fourie’s winners included Silva City, Joy And Peace and Lovegrass for Alan Greeff, while he booted Crowned Hornbill and Run The World home for Justin Snaith.
