Oh, what a show!
WAR: DE KOCK AND WOODRUFF AIM TO RULE AGAIN IN CUP BUT THERE'S TOUGH OPPOSITION
Fun for everybody as the carnival and the top horses head to Turffontein for Joburg's biggest horseracing event.
What a carnival! What a show! What a day! The Gauteng Sansui Summer Cup race meeting at Turffontein tomorrow will take a day at the races to a new level with a potent combination of fun for the whole family, incredible excitement and chances galore to win big with TAB.
This is Joburg’s biggest horseracing event and a feast of high-quality races coupled with mega TAB pools and opportunities to win piles of cash awaits horseplayers.
The Pick 6 pool on the day is set to soar above R6 million as a result of a R1.7-million carryover and the Quartet pool on the Cup (pick the first four in the right order to win) will also be fuelled by a carryover and should top R2 million!
But, as the famous and well-worn advertising line says, that’s not all! For the kids there’s the Cup Carnival with everything from a Ferris wheel and other mechanical rides to clowns, buskers and food stalls.
And there’s more! Between-races entertainment will include a field band, drum majorettes and fashion shows with an interlude before the Summer Cup when award-winning Mi Casa will play a 20-minute set in the parade ring.
With 12 races carded, it’s a day-intonight experience that is set to be a winner from start to finish. Admission to the track costs R75, which includes a R25 betting voucher.
The Cup should be a blockbuster. Following Banner Hill's scratching 19 horses will break from the starting gate at 16:50 and the race is a handicap, which means that the runners carry different weights in order to theoretically equalise their chances of winning.
As such it’s a real puzzle for punters with potentially rich rewards for those who get it right. The safest play on the race is a Place bet with TAB, which is offering Place payouts on the first six to finish.
The race could evolve into a straight fight between three of the country’s top trainers - Summer Cup kings Mike de Kock and Geoff Woodruff and reigning champion trainer Sean Tarry, who has four runners in French Navy, Social Order, Tilbury Fort and Liege.
De Kock has won the Cup a record nine times and relies on top four-year-old filly Orchid Island, the current favourite at 6.51, for his 10th Cup triumph.
Woodruff has won six Cups and will saddle Pagoda and Master Switch in a bid to win the race for an amazing fifth year running.
Who will win? Social Order came home like a bullet train to take second place in the recent 1600m Charity Mile and has plenty of improvement in him. He’ll be a formidable rival if he stays this 400m longer distance.