Six million reasons for Summer Cup entrants

Jack Milner

Clear the calendar and ensure you pencil in the Betway Summer Cup meeting at Turffontein for Saturday 30 November.

The race day was officially launched in Sandton on Wednesday evening and among a host of items mentioned, the most relevant for bettors is the R6-million prize money, making it the richest race on the African continent, was confirmed by Betway Africa’s Jonathan Blumberg.

“If you look at Betway’s portfolio in terms of the Springboks, in terms of the Betway SA 20 and what we do, we needed to get some footing in horseracing.

“It made natural sense for us to grab the Summer Cup. This is our third year and we’re hoping to build on what’s been achieved in years one and two.

“The Summer Cup has a great heritage, it has a long history, we’ve had some really great horses winning the race, Turffontein is probably one of the best racecourses in the world and from Betway’s point of view we want to turn it into a kind of year-end party,” said Blumberg.

With the massive prize money on offer the question is whether there will be an inflow of raiders, particularly from the Western Cape.

“I don’t see why not,” exclaimed trainer Mike de Kock. “They’ve got six million reasons to come!”

One runner that is expected to come up from KwaZulu-Natal is Michael Roberts-trained See It Again. Piere Strydom, who attended the function, said he understood the Joburg trip was on the cards, which was also confirmed by De Kock.

“See It Again has been gelded and I make him a big runner, especially at the weights, which are so tight with only a 6kg difference from top to bottom.”

Looking at his potential runners, De Kock said he will nominate Horse Of the Year Dave The King but was not sure if he will run.

“I’ll enter him but I will look at the field and make up my mind. Silver Sanctuary will be one of the main contenders and then we have old soldiers Safe Passage and Aragosta.”

However, De Kock could have another string to his bow in the form of Buster Barnes who has been running with aplomb in Zimbabwe.

The four-year-old Erupt gelding has won seven of his 10 starts with three places and is moving South for the summer.

“Hopefully we can get him to qualify,” De Kock added. “We’re under the gun in terms of time, but he seems a really nice horse.

“He has a rating of only 96 but you never know. I’ve seen one or two come out of Zimbabwe and do very well.

“I’m very excited about the project.”