Racing on the Highveld joins the stake-money bonanza

Increased stakes for Highveld racing is more good news for horse owners – coming hot on the heels of a massive money injection into the Cape Town programme.

Operator 4Racing hasn’t gone as far as to actually pay connections to race their horses – as the daringly innovative team at Cape Racing have done – but the prizemoney at Turffontein and the Vaal racecourses has been bumped up from what were sorry levels in the past six months.

Newly crowned national champion trainer Paul Peter – based in Joburg – has revealed he had to change his title-chasing strategy and raid KwaZulu-Natal far more frequently in the final months of the 2021/22 season as the coastal centre’s purses had far outstripped the pared-back offerings at home.

A 4Racing press release on its new stakes deal on Monday does not provide detailed comparisons, but the sums to be raced for from 1 October – at the start of the summer feature season – are clearly an improvement on the status quo. And they are roughly matching Western Cape and KZN – centres that have the deep pocket-sponsorship of sports book company Hollywoodbets behind them.

This is the 4Racing release:

‘The Highveld Feature Race Season programme 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 are 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 programme.

The 340 races for winners are 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.’