The Grade 2 Peermont Emperor’s Palace Charity Mile, which is one of the most important stepping stones into the GBets Summer Cup and will be run at Turffontein Standside on November 3, has attracted an entry of 45 horses and the joint-highest rated among them is last year’s winner Hat Puntano.

Hat Puntano

This 118 merit-rated Mike Azzie-trained Argentinian-bred subsequently ran ninth in the L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate and was then laid off for nine months until a recent outing in the Grade 2 Jo’burg Spring Challenge over 1450m on the Turffontein Inside track where well beaten.

The other 118 merit-rated entry is the Robbie Sage-trained Coral Fever, winner of the Grade 1 Premier’s Champion Challenge. He also made his reappearance in the Jo’burg Spring Challenge and ran a good 3,4 length sixth with topweight.

Liege, last year’s Summer Cup winner, is among 12 Charity Mile entries for Sean Tarry. Liege and Matador Man on 108 are the highest rated of Tarry’s entries.

The two horses at the top of the Summer Cup boards, Noble Secret and Cascapedia, are among ten entries for Mike de Kock. It is unusual for three-year-olds to run in the Charity Mile but De Kock has entered his two young stalwarts Soqrat and Alyaasaat. However, they are also entries in the traditional three-year-old race on the day, the Graham Beck Stakes over 1400m.

The only out of province entry is the Frank Robinson-trained Roy Had Enough who has won two Listed races over a mile.

By David Thiselton