Racing South Africa Charity Turf Challenge Latest

Forwarded on behalf of Racing South Africa



MEDIA RELEASE – 23 JUNE 2008


The sixth leg of the inaugural Charity Turf Challenge was run at Greyville on Friday night where, in a downpour, jockey Pierre Strydom rode a masterful race on Mentor to win the 15th race of the Challenge, the 1200m Gr.2 Post Merchants.

Trainer Dominic Zaki had his four-year-old son of National Assembly tuned to perfection for the R300 000 sprint and under a perfectly judged ride passed the winning post three lengths clear of second-placed Escobar.

Mentor (like Escobar), was bred by Avontuur Thoroughbred Farm situated outside Stellenbosch and is owned by Messrs Alesh Naidoo and V Haripersad. Continuing the stables excellent run of form in the KZN Champion’s Season was Sean Tarry’s Jet Master filly, Nimley, which put up a gallant effort to hold on to the third placing.

Only Mentor earned points (10) for his followers in the Charity Turf Challenge, but the result did not materially affect the top twenty Leader Board which remains the same as last week.

The winner of this week’s spot prize is Michael Martin, drawn randomly from the top twenty point scorers under the monitoring of Gold Circle’s internal audit. As part of their sponsorship of the Racing South Africa Thoroughbred Expo 2008 (31 July to 2 August), Canon has kindly donated a number of spot prizes and Mr Martin will receive a Bubble Jet Colour Printer from the Durban branch of Canon.
So, “African Lion” will lead the Challenge on 157 points going into the all important seventh leg staged on Vodacom Durban July day, Saturday 5 July.

There, contestants will have no fewer than six Graded races to build up points including the last of the 25-point bonus races, the Durban July itself. The Charity Turf Challenge leader board after the running of the sixth leg is:

“African Lion” 157
“Honey” 155
J Strydom 155
M Seligmann 150
“Tejalisa” 150
R van der Haer 150
“JMFJ” 147
S M Koster 147
N Andrews 145
O Brits 145
R Dhipnarain 145
M Martin 145
“African Lion” 142
A Bon 140
J Campbell 140
C Deetlifs 140
R Dhipnarain 140
K M Lacey 140
M Seligmann 140
D van Niekerk 140