South Africa’s racing supporters have another massive betting bonanza to look forward to when the Gold Cup Festival of Racing Weekend takes place over two days at Greyville in Durban at the end of the month.
Racing enthusiasts saw mind-blowing pools for the exotic bets at the Vodacom Durban July meeting at the beginning of the month and while not expected to reach quiet the same heights at the duel meetings on July 29 and 30, they will attract country wide interest where just for the Pick 6 bets on the two days, the pools are expected to total about R10-million.
The National Totalisator has announced that for the Pick 6 on the Saturday which features the R1-million, World Sports Betting Champions Cup, they will start the pool off with a R1-million carryover and guarantee a pool of R3.5-million with the expectation that it will reach R4-million plus.
For the Sunday meeting where the R1.25-million, eLan Gold Cup, the country’s premier marathon event over 3 200m, will take centre stage, they will start the pool with a R1.75-million carryover and will guarantee a pool of R5-million which they expect to reach at least R6-million.
The tote has also introduced a new bet for the weekend called the “Festival Cup Double” which they will start off with an injection of R100 000. In this bet punters will have to select the winner of the World Sports Betting Champions Cup on the Saturday and the winner of the eLan Gold Cup on the Sunday and 70% of the eventual pool will be shared by those that get it right.
They are also offering a consolation double where 30% of the pool will go to punters whose selection finish 1st and 2nd or 2nd and 1st in the respective Cup races. Betting on this double opens on Tuesday, 25 July and will close at 16:10 on Saturday and a minimum bet of R10 is required. Those using the betmark cards are required to mark the cards “SPQ” as the venue.
With the traditional great interest in the meeting, the pools on all bets for the two days are expected to be well above the normal weekend levels.
By Richard McMillan
