THE BATTLE OF THE STARS

Huge prizes are on offer for leading owners, trainers, jockeys and the Media tipsters while the KwaZulu-Natal Bookmakers’ Society, in conjunction with Gold Circle, is putting up R100 000 in prizes for the leading jockeys and trainers in the new KZN Bookmakers’ Get-Out Stakes competition running on the last race at meetings staged in the province.

Competition is pretty hot through all competitions and, with the KwaZulu-Natal Winter Season now upon us and the top horses moving to the region from the Western Cape and Gauteng, the battle will become even hotter.

The Turfstar competition is for the equine athletes and the Western Cape filly, Shadow Dancing, still holds a narrow lead on 20 points. But Jamaica, who finished second to Shadow Dancing in the Fancourt Majorca Stakes, boosted herself into joint second position with Nhlavini after winning the Empress Stakes. Nhlavini earned his extra six points for running second to Cataloochee in the Computaform Sprint.

Among the jockeys in the Topstar section, Glen Hatt still holds a commanding lead on 34 points but has not earned any more points since the J&B Met. Closing in fast from a mere six points for his second on Jamaica in the Fancourt Majorca Stakes, Jason Jago has romped up into second position on 20 points after winning the Empress Stakes on Jamaica and then running third on Alarm Call in the Computaform Sprint.

Weichong Mawing is third on 18 points and Anton Marcus has moved into fourth after his second on Nhlavini in the Computaform Sprint.

In the Tipstar Competition there has been some notable changes with the biggest improvement coming from Chad Cooke of The Daily News who has shot up from joint 13th place on 18 points to a clear fifth place on 48 points. Damian Patterson of the Pretoria News and Johan Stassen of The Herald, who were second and third respectively at the end of January, have swapped positions and, with Stassen earning eight points more than Patterson during the period, he is on 52 points - two ahead of Patterson.

But holding his position out in front on 58 points, having increased his lead from four to six points, is Richard McMillan of The Mercury. But, he believes it’s going to be a close call over the next few months and the picture could change drastically.

The final competition is the KZN Bookmakers Get-Out Stakes and Dennis Drier has moved up from fifth position on 15 points to lead with 32 points. Alistair Gordon, who was second by seven points to early leader Des Egdes, has closed the gap and at the end of March they were in joint second place on 30 points each.

In the competition for jockeys, there has been no change in the positions of the first three with Sean Cormack still in front with 45 points. Robbie Hill has managed to close the gap slightly from nine to seven points and Kevin Shea, who was on equal points at 22 with Hill at the last call, has lost ground to Hill by nine points.