...added plenty of incentive for owners, trainers and riders and the conclusion to this two-and-a-half-month Challenge at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Friday night was full of excitement as more than R1 million in total was up for grabs.
Hollywoodbets Brand and Communications manager Devin Heffer summed up the attraction of the Sizzling Summer Challenge, saying, "It is a fantastic opportunity for Hollywoodbets to continue their investment in KZN racing, covering the trainers, jockeys, owners and apprentices. This is especially as it is in KZN's off-season. It is a great way to get some interest going and create some competition between the trainers and keep their horses locally based. I think there was a fantastic finish coming down to the final meeting in which it was open wide for the Horse Challenge as well as the Jockeys Challenge. The beauty of this competition is that it rewards consistency. The fact that Keagan de Melo gathered the most points and yet still had the highest points average shows what level he is riding at at the moment. It is promising to see Siphesihle Hlengwa gain the highest average points in the Apprentice Challenge. He is an apprentice to watch going forward. A big well done to owner Preggie Somasundram and Louis Goosen for Princess Tea. Louis was very shrewd in aiming this filly at this competition. We aimed to increase the fields with this competition, to have horses racing rather than galloping back at home, so it was fitting horses who ran often and performed consistently were rewarded. I am sure the bonus money earned will be gratefully claimed too."
As an example of the excitement generated, owner Preggie Somasundram would have been on tenterhooks right until the very last race before knowing his Louis Goosen-trained filly Princess Tea had claimed the R80,000 first prize of the Horse Challenge.
The Duncan Howells-trained Birdwatcher stood a chance to catch Princess Tea with a win in Friday night's last race and there was plenty to play for because second prize of R45,000 is significantly less.
Alas, there was a scratching at the start, which meant Birdwatcher's chances of a Challenge win were gone.
Nevertheless, it was still important for Sean Veale to get as good a placing as possible for Birdwatcher, because the second place prize was also still up for grabs, and it was duly clinched when the mare finished third.
There were four leagues in the Hollywoodbets Sizzling Summer Challenge, the trainer league, jockey league, apprentice league and horse/owners league.
The points gathered were simply according to finishing position and the size of the field i.e. in a ten horse field the winning trainer, rider and horse collect ten points each, second place collects nine points, third collects eight points etc. all the way down to last place.
Garth Puller won the Trainers Challenge for the second time.
This league had R400,000 allocated to it, which was shared by the top 20 trainers in staggered amounts according to finishing position.
Puller scored 800.5 points to land the the R50,000 first prize.
In second place was Kom Naidoo who finished on 703 points and earned R40,000.
Wendy Whitehead secured the bonus award of R25,000 for best average points per runner of 6.13 points.
The latter award also went down to the wire as Duncan Howells, who scored a first and a third in the last race of the series, and Dennis Drier, were both in contention going into the last meeting. They ended narrowly behind Whitehead with averages of 6.06 apiece.
Keagan de Melo won the Jockeys Challenge with 753.5 points and earned R60,000.
Serino Moodley finished in second place on 725 points to land R40,000.
Tristan Godden was third on 610.5 points and earned R25,000.
De Melo also secured the best average points per ride with 6.4 to land an additional R20,000.
Moodley will be lamenting the cancelled meeting on Boxing Day due to inclement weather, because De Melo was sitting out a suspension for the last three meetings and could well have been caught by Moodley.
Rachel Venniker secured the top spot on the apprentice leaderboard and won prize money of R10,000.
She finished on 729 points with Siphesihle Hlengwa back in second with 525 points, which earned him prize money of R6,000.
Hlengwa scored an extra R5,000 bonus for the best average points per ride on 5.8.
The Louis Goosen-trained Princess Tea scored 54 points to earn R80,000 as winner of the Horse Challenge for her owner Mr Preggie Somasundram.
The filly was just three points clear of the Duncan Howells-trained Birdwatcher, whose 51 points clinched second prize money of R45,000 for owners Monty Racing (Pty) Ltd, (Messrs R Mudaly, Tevin Naiker & Karishma Singh).
The Kom Naidoo-trained Rio Supremo ran an important second place in the first race on Friday night, because it clinched her third place in the Challenge and a R35,000 prize for her owners, Miss Trinisha Pillay & Mr S Govender. The winner of that first race, the Mike Miller-trained Fortune Bay, finished just one point behind Rio Supremo on the table.
The final Hollywoodbets Sizzling Summer Challenge league tables are shown below:
Jockey Leaderboard
Position Jockey Points Strike Rate Prize Money
1 K de Melo 753.5 **6.4** R60 000
2 S Moodley 725.0 6.1 R40 000
3 T Godden 610.5 5.7 R25 000
4 M Yeni 538.0 5.2 R18 500
5 C Habib 493.0 4.7 R15 000
6 A Mgudlwa 500.0 5.0 R12 500
7 A Arries 374.5 5.1 R10 000
8 J Gates 373.0 4.7 R6 000
8 S Khumalo 372.5 6.8 R8 000
10 R Fourie 333.0 7.1
R5 000
**Best Avg Points Per Ride - min 80 rides**
Trainer Leaderboard
Position Trainer Points Strike Rate Prize Money
1 G Puller 800.5 5.52 R50 000
2 K Naidoo 703.0 4.59 R40 000
3 M Roberts 521.0 5.66 R34 000
4 W Whitehead 472.0 **6.13** R30 000
5 P Muscutt 421.0 6.01 R26 000
6 A Wright 392.0 5.94 R24 000
7 M Miller 391.0 5.84 R22 000
8 L Karriem 369.5 4.80 R20 000
9 C Hewitson 326.0 5.34 R18 000
10 D Bosch 307.0 5.12 R16 000
11 D Howells 297.0 6.06 R14 000
12 D Drier 285.0 6.06 R13 000
13 P Lafferty 279.0 5.26 R12 000
14 G van Zyl (Jnr) 252.0 5.60 R11 000
15 N Kotzen 219.0 4.98 R10 000
16 G Rich 214.0 5.10 R9 000
17 A Rivalland 204.0 5.67 R8 000
18 D Kannemeyer 196.5 5.46 R7 000
19 MJ Odendaal 189.0 6.10 R6 000
20 D Campbell 183.0 5.08 R5 000
**Best Avg Points Per Runner - min 45 runners*
Horse Leaderboard
Position Horse Points Runs Prize Moeny
1 Princess Tea 54 8 R80 000
2 Birdwatcher 51 7 R45 000
3 Rio Supremo 46 6 R35 000
4 Fortune Bay 40 4 R30 000
5 Cataleya Summer 39 5 R25 000
6 Barbatti 38 5 R19 667
6 Edvige 38 4 R19 667
6 Northern Warrior 38 5 R19 667
9 Family Favourite 37 4 R12 500
9 Fever 37 5 R12 500
9 Gimme A Rainbow 37 5 R12 500
9 Hatta 37 4 R12 500
9 I've Got Wings 37 6 R12 500
9 Leopard Lady 37 5 R12 500
9 Quanabi 37 5 R12 500
9 Quiz Master 37 5 R12 500
17 Aisling 36 4 R6 500
17 Caesura 36 5 R6 500
17 Get Carter 36 6 R6 500
17 High Velocity 36 5 R6 500
Apprentice Leaderboard
Position Apprentice Points Strike Rate Prize Money
1 R Venniker 729.0 5.3 R10 000
2 S Hlengwa 525.0 **5.8** R6 000
3 M Katjedi 445.0 4.9 R4 000
4 D Geerthsen 176.0 4.3 R2 500
5 C Dicken 79.0 5.3 R1 500
6 G Pieterse 65.0 6.5
R1 000
**Best Avg Points Per Ride - min 40 rides**
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