Earth Hour set to collect R50k bonus

CONNNECTIONS of Earth Hour are almost guaranteed to receive the R50 000 consolation bonus tomorrow at Fairview as this Lateral gelding is one of only two horses to run in all three legs of the World Sports Betting East Cape Poly Challenge.

In order to qualify for the bonus, a horse must participate in all three legs and win at least one leg.

Of the seven runners carded to face the starter tomorrow, only Earth Hour and Dubula have contested the first two legs, with the former winning the second leg while the latter ran fourth in both the opening two legs.

A terrible draw (gate 12 in a field of 12) and with no luck in running, trainer Juan Nel had to watch with tied hands as his charge ran fifth in the first leg of this series over 1200 under Lukas Bester.

In the second leg, over 1400m, Earth Hour showed tremendous guts to make up a 2.6 length deficit over the last 400m to beat highly regarded Marmara Sea on the line with Luyolo Mxothwa in the saddle.

That was Marmara Sea’s only defeat on the Polytrack in nine starts.

Tomorrow Earth Hour jumps from gate 3 and this time round Callan Murray gets the ride as Nel’s charge renews the rivalry with Alan Greeff’s Marmara Sea.

There has not been much between them whenever they have met, with Marmara Sea leading their head-tohead contests 2-1.

To snatch the R50 000 consolation bonus, Dubula will not only need to win tomorrow’s third leg, but will need Earth Hour to finish outside of the top three – according to the points allocation in the series.

Dubula, to his credit, has never finished outside the first three in five runs over tomorrow’s course and distance. Earth Hour, on the other hand, has been runner-up twice in two runs over course and distance, so there must surely still be a very small glimmer of hope for this five-year-old gelding also from the Greeff-stable.

The Gavin Smith-trained Sailing Lizard could also play a role tomorrow as he has won all four outings since arriving in the Eastern Cape, two over course and distance.

Nimcha did recently retired trainer Gary Alexander proud when under his care and is an interesting recruit to the Eastern Cape and could be the surprise package of the race.