Against the backdrop of stake reductions, it’s become significantly more necessary to tap into the various big value sales races, as well as the added stakes programmes on offer.
It softens the blow when a juvenile maiden winner (from a BSA sale) gets an extra R60k.
And it’s less of an issue that the stake of the Nursery has been cut by R50k when the winner (assuming it came off the CTS RTR sale) picks up an extra R250k.
Oscar Foulkes writes that there are now so many of these programmes that they have become almost as confusing as Vitality rewards. To make things easy, here’s a quick and dirty guide to the various race/stake incentives.
Cape Premier Yearling Sale
No sales races for the 2019 sale.
Cape Yearling Sale
BSA Added Stakes Progamme (i.e. R60k to the first 120 juvenile maiden winners)
From 2020, there will be a sales race for graduates.
National Yearling Sale
BSA Added Stakes Progamme
Klawervlei Farm Sale
Farm Sale race for R225k (at least a 10% chance of getting a run)
KZN Yearling Sale
BSA Added Stakes Progamme
KZN Millions Race on July day (5% chance of getting a run)
National 2YO Sale
BSA Added Stakes Progamme
RTR
BSA Added Stakes Progamme
RTR race for R1 million (10% chance of getting a run) *Ed – this stake is yet to be finalised
CTS RTR
Sales race for R1.25 million (10% chance of getting a run)
R250k to each of the first three juvenile stakes-winners
It’s very important to note that a BSA two-year-old that breaks its maiden in open company does not qualify for the added stakes. The fine print gets important with these things.
I regard myself as something of an eBucks Ninja, so of course I’d find a way of maximising the benefits of these various incentives.
You see, we’ve bought horses at sales throughout the year – and paid the owner’s premium – so some of our CTS RTR horses are not only eligible for the raft of RTR incentives, but they’ve also picked up eligibilty to various other programmes. All this information will be on the stable doors.
So, using the hypothetical example of a CTS RTR horse that originally came from the KZN sale, it would get an extra R60k for breaking its maiden.
If it then went on to win the Summer Juvenile Stakes on Met day it would get an extra R250k by way of RTR incentive.
It could run in the R1 million sales race on July day, and of course it would also be eligible for the R1.25 million Ready to Run Stakes in November.
It could end up earning more money than the Champion colt or filly of its generation!
In the same way that eBucks change their rules on a regular basis, both BSA and CTS have shifted the goalposts.
BSA no longer pay an extra R150k to the winners of specified Grade I and II races. Perhaps part of the reason is that payment of the owner’s premium is not obligatory, so the revenue is not maximised.
CTS, on the other hand, enforce this. And, while the three times R250k incentive for the first three juvenile stakes-winners may not be paid out, they have undertaken to roll it over should parts of it not be won. So, it’s money that remains available for the ecosystem of their RTR graduates. Their premium revenue in 2019 delivers a surplus of roughly R700k, which mitigates their subsidy of the R2.5 million stake in the past.
For many years, I’ve beaten the drum that buying at RTR is a no-brainer.
Scooping additional stakes by way of broader eligilibility adds to that compelling list of reasons.
