Sprint meeting attracts huge entry

A MASSIVE entry of 106 sprinting thoroughbreds, including the first three past the post in the recent Grade 1 Computaform Sprint at Turffontein, have been entered for the country’s biggest meeting for speed horses which features four Grade 1 events, all over 1 200m.

It will all happen at the Tsogo Sun Sprint race meeting at Scottsville Racecourse in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday, May 26 where R3.25-million in stakes will be up for grabs for the four races that form the official Jackpot at the meeting.

Headed by the R1-million Tsogo Sun Sprint, the programme includes the R750 000 South African Fillies Sprint for fillies and mares at weight-for-age and the two R750 000 juvenile events at level weights, the Tsogo Sun Gold Medallion which is open to all twoyear-olds and the Allan Robertson Championship which is restricted to the young fillies.

In the Tsogo Sun Sprint three fillies are among 33 entries where the Joey Ramsden-trained Western Winter gelding Attenborough will likely top the early betting after his impressive victory in the Computaform Sprint where he came on late under Richard Fourie to win by a length at an easy-toback price of 16-1.

The runner up in that race, Pinnacle Peak from the Dorrie Sham stable and Attenborough’s stable mate Speedpoint that finished third are also among the entries along with In Full Flight Handicap winner Bold Respect, the unlucky and often slow away Trip To Heaven, and others such as Sir Frenchie, Naafer, Sunset Eyes, Myfunnyvalentine, Always In Charge, Black Cat Back and Bishops Bounty.

Myfunnyvalentine has also been entered for the SA Fillies Sprint along with Sommerlied, Live Life who finished third in the Grade 1 Cape Flying Championship as well as Neptune’s Rain and Made In Hollywood that filled the first two places in the Strelitzia Stakes.

Green Plains won the Camelot beating Myfunnyvalentine and Magical Wonderland is one of the many three-year-olds in the entries who won the Sceptre Stakes at Kenilworth in January.

Trainer Dennis Drier, who has an outstanding record in the Tsogo Sun Gold Medallion, has nominated three horses for the juvenile race – Immortelle, Crown And Country and Goliath Heron. -