Graeme Hawkins

Questioning kept his unblemished record at Hollywoodbets Durbanville safely intact with a workmanlike and uncomplicated victory in Saturday’s R300 000 Kuda Matchem Stakes (Gr3) over 1400m. Questioning raced up handy from a wide draw under JP van der Merwe and tracked the free-running Montien into the home stretch. Returning fresh from a 175-day absence, Montien kept up a solid gallop and refused to throw in the towel, but Questioning gradually wore him down and forged ahead over the final 100m to score by half-a-length.

Trained by Vaughan Marshall and racing in the colours of Cape Racing Chairman Greg Bortz for a partnership which includes Mukund Gujadhur, the Wernars family and Gina Goldsmith, Questioning has now won all four of his starts at the country course. As a 3yo the gelded son of Querari, bred by Alec Foster, won last year’s Cape Classic over 1400m but subsequently disappointed in the Selangor Cup and the Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas, both over 1600m. His forte is clearly sprinting, and Marshall confirmed post-race that Questioning’s principal targets will now likely be the Cape Flying Championship (Gr1) over 1000m and the Diadem Stakes Stakes (Gr2) over 1200m.

Montien, on the other hand, is being aimed at the King’s Plate (Gr1) over 1600m at the beginning of January. Trainer Piet Botha was delighted with Montien’s performance on Saturday and is optimistic that the big-striding 5yo son of Louis The King will be able to hold his own against the best around. The ultra-consistent and classy At My Command stayed on well to finish third in Saturday’s Matchem Stakes and he is likely to progress nicely through the Cape Summer Season. The WSB Green Point Stakes (Gr2) over 1600m, in which he finished runner-up behind See It Again last year, will be on his immediate radar and there’s no doubt that the 5yo son of Querari has what it takes to compete at the highest level.

Dean Kannemeyer, still glowing from Gimmie’s Countess’ brilliant performance in the Baker McVeigh Diana Stakes (Gr3) some 35 minutes earlier, was equally thrilled with Gimme A Prince who ran on from the back to round out the Quartet. Having his first start following an injury-enforced 12-month lay-off, the dual Grade 1-winning Gimme A Prince was a given a sympathetic ride, but he was doing his best work late and Kannemeyer was more than satisfied with the performance. Chatting to Dean yesterday morning, it would appear that Gimme A Prince came through the race unscathed, and the King’s Plate (Gr1)remains his ultimate mission.

Gimmie’s Countess, the 3yo own sister to Gimme A Prince, took out the supporting feature, the R200 000 Baker McVeigh Diana Stakes (Gr3) for fillies and mares over 1400m in some style and is well on track for the World Sports Betting Cape Fillies Guineas over 1600m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on 7 December. Ridden by KZN-based Serino Moodley, Gimmie’s Countess was some way back halfway up the home stretch, but she quickened smartly in the closing stages and sprinted clear of Summer Lily and Princess Izzy to score by a length. Gimmie’s Countess is likely to follow the traditional path into the Fillies’ Guineas and her next engagement will in all probability be the R450 000 Western Cape Fillies Championship (Gr2) over 1400m at Kenilworth on 9 November.

Andrew Harrison

Cats Pajamas certainly looked the part in the Graduation Plate that headed the card at a rapidly cooling Hollywoodbets Greyville yesterday, but even trainer Frank Robinson will have been impressed with his charge as the gelding slapped up a useful field.

Off his handicap mark, Cats Pajamas was always going to be hard to beat, but the manner of victory is what counted.

Given a strong early pace with riders hoping to make use of a brisk tail wind, Rachel Venniker was not fazed even off a slightly sluggish jump and was well back in the early running. Into the straight there looked to be reason to panic given his distance behind, but Venniker obviously know what she had under her. Once releasing the brake, Cats Pajamas lengthend stride to win as he liked.

Recently gelded, Robinson has the Merchants on the Highveld as a possible immediate target and even though yesterday’s opposition was not up to Merchants quality, the win was full of merit.

Owner Sid Moodley is the mainstay of the Robinson stable and Cats Pajamas, who rounded off last season with a win in the Gr2 Umkomazi Stakes, should keep the home fires burning. 

 Robbie Hill was a top rider in his day but also a man of few words. “It’s not about looks, it’s not a fashion parade,” was all he commented after Regeneration made a stunning debut in the first. 

The chestnut daughter of Danon Platina was nowhere in sight turning for home as Muzi Yeni tried all to benefit from the strong tail wind on the grey Panthera Uncia but once Regeneration found her feet and the penny dropped, she motored home to put the field to bed in promising fashion with Panthera Unica staying on gamely for second.

Hill was back in the winner’s box as Queen Amina fired through under Craig Zackey to win the third. Going the 2000m trip for the first time, Zackey was closer to last than first turning for home, but the chasing pack opened up like the Red Sea for Moses crossing the subway and Queen Amina needed no further invitation as she quickened through in spite of lugging in the last bit.

Run out of it in the first, Yeni made no mistakes in the second as he had Artist’s Model tracking pacemaker Shiny Bob from the jump. He eased his mount off the fence approaching the home straight and from there it was one-way traffic as Mike de Kock’s charge quickened up with the wind behind and came home lonely. 

Lucretius is not the easiest to train but Carl Hewitson’s gelding took to the 2300m of the Middle Stakes to win well under Craig Zackey for The Poet’s Syndicate and Irish-based Mike Moroney and local partners. 

Local Quartet pools with fractional betting on selected UK race meetings will return to the TabGold betting menu from this Thursday following a mixed reception from customers to the introduction of commingled Quartet pools on all UK and Irish race meetings last month.

Such commingled Quartet pools have been welcomed in some quarters, but many TabGold customers have complained that this has resulted in them being unable to play fractional Quartet bets on UK races.

TabGold have taken note of the complaints and from this Thursday 12 September customers can enjoy the best of both worlds. As before local Quartet pools with fractional betting will be offered on two UK meetings most days with commingled Quartet pools on all other UK and Irish meetings.

Whether an Irish or UK meeting has local or commingled pools will be displayed clearly on Tab sheet race cards in store and online.

Unfortunately for several reasons, including vast differences in exchange rates, it is not technically possible to offer fractional bets on pools commingled internationally.

The minimum unit for commingled bets is R1 (more in the case of countries like the USA) and this is itself a fractional bet in international tote pools.

As an example, the unit of a UK Tote Quartet is one Pound and a customer playing a R1-unit Quartet with TabGold on a UK race is buying about 1/24th of the bet, depending on the exchange rate on the day. And if that bet is the only winning ticket, the customer will get 1/24th of the pool and the remainder will be carried over. To get the full UK Tote payout on a commingled Quartet requires playing the bet to a R24 unit.

That aside, the introduction of commingled Quartet bets has given TabGold customers many more opportunities to play Quartets on UK and Irish races, and access to bigger pools and payouts.

David Thiselton

The KZN Racing awards will be held on 30 August in the Classic Room at Hollywoodbets Greyville and there is going to be a quandary this year about the KZN Horse Of The Season just as there was last year.

The Horse Of The Year award, unlike the other awards, are open to horses from the yards of trainers who are not domiciled in KZN as long as the subject horse has had three or more runs in KZN. It can thus be won by an out of province horse who has excelled in KZN during the season. The other awards can only be won by horses from KZN  yards, although Glen Kotzen and Dean Kannemeyer count as KZN yards because they have had satellite yards in KZN for many years.

The Horse Of The Year exclusion was probably made due to there not being a suitable candidate for some seasons in recent times. However, should not genuine KZN-trained horses like the Michael Roberts-trained See It Again last year and the Nathan Kotzen-trained Royal Victory this year be acknowledged in some way? Everybody in the industry would have viewed the former as the best horse from KZN in the 2022/2023 season, although the Peter Muscutt-trained Isivunguvungu could also have laid a claim, and this season Royal Victory is viewed by all and sundry as the best horse from KZN, although the Gareth van Zyl-trained Flag Man could also lay a claim having performed better on paper than Royal Victory in both the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Durban July and Gr 1 wfa HKJC Champions Cup.

The Highveld racing awards could also potentially lead to an out of province horse being named Horse Of The Season. They are actually called the Highveld Feature Season awards as they go on performances of horses on the Highveld in features races during the season. Royal Victory was thus named the Champion Middle Distance Horse and Champion Older Male in the Highveld feature Season awards this year and he was only ousted in the Horse Of The Season award by the outstanding Mike de Kock-trained Gimme A Nother.

However, the big difference is that the Highveld features only have a sprinkling of out of province horses competing in them. The Horse Of The Season award will virtually always be won by a Highveld horse and was this year it went to the outstanding Mike de Kock-trained Gimme A Nother, even though Royal Victory became the first out of province horse in history to win both of the Highveld’s biggest races, the Gr 1 Betway Summer Cup and the Gr 1 World Pool Premier’s Champions Challenge.

The KZN horses, on the other hand, have to compete with every champion from every province, because all champions from around the country descend on KZN for the three month long world famous racing festival, The Champions Season.

Last year the Horse Of The Season was won by the Sean Tarry-trained Princess Calla, who won three Gr 1s in KZN during the season.

This year the favourite must be the Mike de Kock-trained Dave The King. He qualifies because he ran in KZN three times in the season and he won two open weight for age Gr 1s in KZN. He was in fact the only horse in the country to have won two open wfa Gr 1s last season.

However, Royal Victory is a history-making KZN horse. On top of being the first out of province horse to do the Highveld double of the Summer Cup and Premier’s Champions Challenge, he is in fact the first out of province horse to have ever won the Premier’s Champions Challenge and the second out of province horse this millennium to have won the Summer Cup.

He could well go home empty-handed on KZN Awards night. If Dave The King is to be named Horse Of The Season then he must also surely be named Champion Older Male. Furthermore, the Dean Kannemeyer-trained Green With Envy ran three times in KZN during the season, so qualifies for awards as explained earlier by Kannemeyer’s KZN status, and like Royal Victory he won two middle distance Gr 1s during the season and one of them was in KZN, so he must be in pole position to win the Middle Distance award.

So the widely acknowledged best horse in KZN, Royal Victory, might be completely unacknowledged in his home province.

There are special awards occasionally put on at racing award ceremonies and this might be a case in point of creating one.

However, what would probably be better considering the realities of racing in KZN during any given season, would be to create a new permanent award to acknowledge KZN’s best horse of the season. The award should only be open to horses from KZN yards. 

Here’s good news for TabGold customers who take Trifecta bets on races in Australia, the UK, Ireland and France. 

Commingled Trifecta pools with Tote Ireland will be offered on all Irish races for the first time from this Friday and simultaneously the unit cost of commingled Trifecta bets on Australian, UK and French races will be reduced from R2 to R1. The unit cost of the Trio on French races also drops to R1. 

Commingled Trifecta bets on racing in Australia, France and the UK were introduced last month.
The benefits of commingling Trifecta pools with host totes (Tabcorp in Australia excluding thoroughbred venues in Victoria and South Australia; PMU in France, the UK Tote and Tote Ireland), as opposed to local pools, are many more Trifecta betting opportunities on races in those countries and bigger pools, which in turn afford TAB customers the chance to win bigger payouts.