The R120 000 World Sports Betting 400m Dash provided an exciting start to the opening meeting of the 2023 Champions Season at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Saturday.
With the even money favourite Renaissance Man sluggish out of the gates and always outpaced thereafter, clocking 69,9km/h at peak in the the first 100m (versus eventual third-placer Miss Lizzy’s 72,2 km/h), the upset was on the cards.
And it was Dennis Bosch and Jason Gates who celebrated an early success on the big day when Trafalgar Square (20-1) proved the hidden omen on King Charles’ coronation day as he blitzed to victory to beat defending champion Faustino by 0,40 lengths in a time of 24,87 secs.
Jason Gates (yellow) drives Trafalgar Square to a gutsy victory over Athandiwe Mgudlwa and desfending champion, Faustino (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
It was a sentimental victory for young Jason Gates, who rode the Australian-bred Effortless Reward to victory in the same event in 2019. The daughter of Reward For Effort (AUS) still holds the little tested record of 24,18 secs for the 400m.
It was interesting to see from sectional timing tracking data provided that Trafalgar Square clocked 75,4 km/h at his peak over the final 300m.
Have a look at the sections here to see how your selection fared in this race.
Sectional timing data, which has been produced by the internationally acclaimed French company McLloyd, who also provide the service to French and Hong Kong horseracing, is now available on the Winning Form website (www.winningform.co.za) for Hollywoodbets Greyville and Hollywoodbets Scottsville race meetings, and is also being phased in on Cape racing.
Watch the 400m Dash replay here:
The 4yo Trafalgar Square was bred by David Southey and is a son of Great Britain (Green Desert) out of the three-time London News mare, London Dipper.
A R15 000 National 2yo Sale graduate, Trafalgar Square has won 4 races with 11 races from 28 starts for stakes of R325 500.
Trainer Dennis Bosch – astute tactician (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
The sectional timing project on KZN and Cape racing is intended as a customer friendly value-add to boost the enjoyment, understanding and ultimately the rewards that punters and fans gain from watching the world’s most exciting ‘brain game’.
The project is a work-in-progress and the public are invited to comment and make suggestions, including providing personal recommendations of other standard reports that we could create and implement and that may prove beneficial.
