Tote betting on the Gr1 Cape Town Met presented by World Sports Betting racemeeting on Saturday will open on Friday 28 January. It will be a Hong Kong Jockey Club World Pool platform.
The Hong Kong Jockey Club World pools will operate on races 4 through to 11 and apply to Win, Place, Swinger and Quinella bets. TAB will provide a more detailed announcement later this week.
Pearl Of Asia – Gr1 Mercury Sprint winner gripped the imagination in Hong Kong! (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
The World Pools were popular last year when Gold Circle hosted the Daily News 2000 meeting and the Marshalls World Of Sport Festival racemeeting.
Punters in Hong Kong wagered more than R500 million on the Hong Kong Jockey Club tote on the latter racemeeting, which was held on the last day of the 2020/21 season.
The top-turnover race on the day was the Mercury Sprint.
Nearly R100 million was wagered, significantly more than any other race and probably due to the presence of rank outsider Pearl of Asia. The gelding’s name apparently caught the attention of many Hong Kong punters because he was well backed on the tote and paid R18.10 for a Win after springing a 40-1 surprise and beating 10-1 chance Sakheet by a neck.
On Saturday, the R1 million Pongracz Gr1 Cape Flying Championship is one of three elite races on the twelve race programme.
Rio Querari – top class speedster (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
David Thiselton reports on www.goldcircle.co.za that Rio Querari is the reigning Equus Champion Sprinter and attempts to go one better than last year in the 1000m weight for age event. He has only had one comeback run this season, finishing a close 0,30 length second over 1100m at Kenilworth to the up and coming Real Gone Kid to whom he gave 3kg.
He now faces the latter at level weights so should reverse the form on paper. He won his comeback run last season in October but was beaten in his second start by Erik The Red whom he easily beat in the subsequent Cape Flying. However, on the upside he is obviously being prepared for the Cape Flying and Justin Snaith has been setting new milestones in Grade 1s this summer.
Brett Crawford won this race last year with the under the radar Run Fox Run who was heavily supported and shortened from 8/1 into 9/2 before the off and was retired to stud immediately, her mission having been accomplished.
He will try and repeat the feat with Real Gone Kid who has won all three of his starts this season and is going for a five-timer. Crawford has won at least one Grade 1 event every season for the last eight seasons and this might be his best chance to keep up the sequence, as it was last season. In fact last season ended a sequence of seven multiple Grade 1-winning seasons which shows his expertise in peaking horses for the big ones.
The superbly bred Real Gone Kid, by Snitzel out of Gr1-winning Jet Master mare In The Fast Lane, is still an entire so this race will be of the upmost importance in order to enhance his value in the stallion barn of his owners Ridgemont Stud.
All the carryovers for Saturday:
- Race 1 – Jackpot One Leg 1 – Likely Pool R250 000
- Race 2 – Bipot One Leg1 – Likely Pool R600 000
- Race 3 – Place Accumulator Leg 1 – Likely Pool R1 000 000
- Race 4 – Pick 6 Megapool Leg 1 – Carryover R3 000 000 – Likely Pool R10 000 000
- Race 5 – Jackpot Two Leg 1 – Likely Pool R750 000
- Race 7 – Bipot Two Leg 1 – Likely Pool R150 000
- Race 9 – Quartet Maxipool Carryover Over R 500 000 – Likely Pool R2 000 000
- Race 9 – Jackpot Three Leg 1 – Likely Pool R400 000.
- Race 12 – Quartet Carryover R100 000 – Likely Pool R500 000.
