Gijimaz look to pull back GTH deficit
Just four points separated the two teams last Friday in the first leg of the Global Team Horse Racing (GTH) night series at Hollywoodbets Greyville.
It was the KwaZulu Royals, led by Muzi Yeni, who came away with the narrow victory over the Gauteng Gijimaz with Gavin Lerena at the helm, winning the encounter by 452 points to 448.
Tonight, the Gauteng Gijimaz will be back in action, this time against the Cape Stingers, led by Mark Khan.
The three teams are competing for more than R3.5-million in prize money. Jockeys are gunning for the Night Rider prize at the finale, where they can cash in R30,000, R20,000 and R10,000 for first, second and third place respectively.
The competition takes place over four Friday night meetings with two teams competing at each event.
The final round robin contest will take place on 19 August when it will be KZN against the Cape. The two teams with the most points after the three weeks will ride in the final on Friday 2 September.
Teams are awarded points per race according to their placings: 1st 23 points; 2nd 18; 3rd 15; 4th 12; 5th 10; 6th 8; 7th 6; 8th 5.
The first two races of each event are called 50/50 Dashes, where only half points are awarded: 1st 12 points; 2nd 9; 3rd 8; 4th 6; 5th 5; 6th 4; 7th 3; 8th 2.
Once again the races are highly competitive and this contest could go either way.
The two best runners on the night look to be Where’s The Party in Race 1 and Wylie Riley in Race 7. Both rides have been picked up by riders from the Cape Stingers with 4kg claiming apprentice Donald Geerthsen aboard the Shane Humby-trained filly in Race 1 while Robert Khathi rides Gavin van Zyl’s charge in the opener.
Lerena, however, has picked up four runners with chances with the best of his likely to be Captain Who in Race 3 and Goodtime Guy in Race 5.
TEAMS: Cape Stingers: Mark Khan (captain); Corne Orffer; Sean Veale; Rachel Venniker; Robert Khathi; Gareth Wright; Gabriell Pieterse; Khanya Sakayi; and Donald Geerthsen. Manager: Michelle Rix.
Gauteng Gijimaz: Gavin Lerena (captain); Diego de Gouveia; Calvin Habib; Francois Herholdt; Tristan Godden; Cole Dicken; Jason Gates; Hennie Greyling; and Brian Nyawo. Manager: Candice Dawson.