R83,2m up for grabs during the Highveld Feature Race Season

R83,2m up for grabs during the Highveld Feature Race Season

15 August 2022

The Highveld Feature Race Season program will be published shortly with total stakes of R83,2 million for a seven-month period of exciting racing, covering the period 1 October 2022 to 30 April 2023.

The Highveld season will be made up as follows:

      •     68 Feature races offering total stakes of R27,925,000
      •     551 minor races at “in season” levels worth a total of R55,275,000
      •     A total of 619 races with total stakes of R83,200,000

“We are happy to announce the Highveld season and associated stakes. We have sought to ensure the Highveld season continues to attract the country’s finest horses for our big feature days, while also providing fair opportunities for our lower-rated horses. We look forward to an exciting Highveld season and the support of all in the industry to continue to revive and grow the sport of horseracing,” said 4Racing CEO, Fundi Sithebe.

The 551 minor races for the period is made up as follows:

      •     340 Races for Winners (61,71%)
      •     170 Races for Maidens (30,85%)
      •     41 Races for 2yos (7,44%)

The percentage of maiden races has been reduced in line with the horse population trends, which means there are more races for winners in the program.

The 340 races for winners is summarised as follows:

      •     220 Handicaps (60,45% of which are for horses rated 80 and lower)
      •     9 Novice Handicaps
      •     28 Pinnacle Stakes
      •     23 Middle Stakes
      •     30 Classified Stakes (these are races for horses rated 71 and below)
      •     1 Conditions Plate
      •     4 Progress Plates
      •     25 Graduation Plates

 
The breakdown of the Highveld stakes allocation is as follows:

Race Type Stake
A Div R140,000
B Div R130,000
C Div R120,000
D Div R100,000
E Div R80,000
F Div R70,000
Pinnacle R140,000
Middle R100,000
Classified R70,000
Conditions R120,000
Progress R120,000
Graduation R110,000
Novice R105,000
Maiden R100,000
Maiden Juvenile R100,000
Juvenile R110,000

There are two distinct seasons within the seven-month period. The first, the Highveld Spring Season, which gets underway with the Joburg Spring Challenges at the beginning of October, building into the Charity Mile meeting at the end of October and culminating in the Gauteng Summer Cup day at the end of November.

The second one, the Highveld Autumn Season, kicks off with Gauteng Guineas Day at the beginning of February, ultimately building into Champions Day at the end of April.

During this time the MINIMUM stakes for Pattern races are as follows:

Minimum Stakes Levels - Pattern Races
Gr1 Gr2 Gr3 Listed & NBT

Open R1,000,000 R400,000 R250,000 R175,000
F&M R750,000 R300,000 R200,000 R150,000

A number of the Grade 3 and Listed races, predominantly those for younger unexposed horses but a couple of key races for older horses too, now include a rating penalty restriction of 6 points to provide protection for these horses. These races are as follows:

      •     London News Stakes G3 Open
      •     Tony Ruffel Stakes G3 3yos
      •     Three Troikas Stakes G3 3yo Fillies
      •     Swallow Stakes Listed 3yo Fillies
      •     Sea Cottage Stakes G3 3yosMan O’ War Sprint G3 3yos
      •      Man O’ War Sprint G3 3yos
      •     Jubilee Stakes G3 Open
      •     Graham Beck Stakes G3 3yos
      •     Starling Stakes G3 3yo Fillies
      •     Victory Moon Stakes G3 Open
      •     Gardenia Stakes Listed F&M
      •     Fillies Mile G3 3yo Fillies

We are confident this will give owners and trainers the confidence to take their chances in these races without fear of excessive rating increases, thereby improving field sizes and competitiveness of the races.

The Eastern Cape will have a stakes pot of R40 million this year, with R7.25m available for the region’s 40 Feature races.

More good news 👏👍

.....all good and well....time to dive into that shrinking pot....but they need to increase revenue through better and increased Tote offerings or they will soon run out of the donation.....:whistle:

there are enough tote offerings

but there is very little trust in them
I will never trust them or support them again until...

why is there still tote pool manipulation? - EXPLAIN IT
what exactly are the take outs?
what happens to the carry-overs - why is there not an absolute rule that decides where carry-overs go?
I lose my money in a 700,000 P6 carry-over at the Vaal - where does it go?
Is it so difficult to simply say "the 30,000 carry-over from race 8 quartet will be added to the quartet pool of race 5 this coming Sunday" .
I lost my money today and I want to chase it ASAP and I want to know where
But then, that's only me and I am gambling (or is it investing) happily without them and horse racing

The Budget needs to increase, the % split favours the feature races too much...

There's no incentive for owners not to jump ship to WC or KZN

JHB is also the most expensive place to race

If I was the boss I would have maiden plates at about R140k and the others less. Reason - to give an incentive for the run of the mill owners. Hell it’s hard for the run of the mill owner to make some money.


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Mac wrote:

If I was the boss I would have maiden plates at about R140k and the others less. Reason - to give an incentive for the run of the mill owners. Hell it’s hard for the run of the mill owner to make some money.


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in a similar vein - now that they restricted the meetings in Gauteng for August why not increase the stakes for the meetings in August to get full fields - they could go a 30% higher and still be up. The fields are small today as they have cut stakes

fingers wrote:

there are enough tote offerings

but there is very little trust in them
I will never trust them or support them again until...

why is there still tote pool manipulation? - EXPLAIN IT
what exactly are the take outs?
what happens to the carry-overs - why is there not an absolute rule that decides where carry-overs go?
I lose my money in a 700,000 P6 carry-over at the Vaal - where does it go?
Is it so difficult to simply say "the 30,000 carry-over from race 8 quartet will be added to the quartet pool of race 5 this coming Sunday" .
I lost my money today and I want to chase it ASAP and I want to know where
But then, that's only me and I am gambling (or is it investing) happily without them and horse racing

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxccxcccccxxxxxxxxx
Exactly. Back in the day when there were separate pools in Gauteng and KZN, the carryovers were set for the next meeting at the same venue.
Whether it was Bloem or P. E. or Vaal or Clairwood, you could look forward to the carryover as an incentive to play the bet whether it was Pick6, Quartet, Jackpot etc.

Now it's compounding interest that wins, everything against putting money back into the pockets of the punter.

This line in the release is very good news.

A number of the Grade 3 and Listed races, predominantly those for younger unexposed horses but a couple of key races for older horses too, now include a rating penalty restriction of 6 points to provide protection for these horses. These races are as follows:

PE stakes seem flat from 38.6 last season to 40 million not that great.

fingers wrote:

there are enough tote offerings

but there is very little trust in them
I will never trust them or support them again until...

why is there still tote pool manipulation? - EXPLAIN IT
what exactly are the take outs?
what happens to the carry-overs - why is there not an absolute rule that decides where carry-overs go?
I lose my money in a 700,000 P6 carry-over at the Vaal - where does it go?
Is it so difficult to simply say "the 30,000 carry-over from race 8 quartet will be added to the quartet pool of race 5 this coming Sunday" .
I lost my money today and I want to chase it ASAP and I want to know where
But then, that's only me and I am gambling (or is it investing) happily without them and horse racing

......well then still no trust in the tote.....then they need to come clean and more transparent or they are truly f@cked ...:ohmy: as low tote pools are never going to increase....no matter hew much they grow field sizes by increasing stakes.... all they will be doing is having the open bet merchants get a bigger slice of their product offering revenues ....:oops:

It needs to collapse totally and a bookmaker outfit to take over. The NATIONAL tote system needs to be re looked at.