A new round of Gold Circle’s innovative R450 000 KZN Chapter Challenge Series gets underway at the beginning of March and will run for three months to the end of May.

The competitions, which have been running for the past two years, are designed to provide the average handicappers in the country the opportunity to race for a stake of R150 000 and the finals have produced some of the most exciting finishes seen on the race tracks in KwaZulu-Natal.

Well supported by owners and trainers, the competition also provides trainers the opportunity to win up to R35 000 as an incentive bonus for entering their runners in the finals in advance, which also saves the owner of the runner more than R1 000 in entry fees.

The new competition starts on March 2 and horses will earn points, ranging from seven for winning to one for running sixth, in all qualifying handicaps, except features, run in KwaZulu-Natal from then up until May 29. The one restriction is that the merit rating of each horse, after weight-for-age allowance, may not exceed 90 in the qualifying race in which it runs.

There will be three finals to the competition – over 1 200m, 1 600m and 2 000m, and each with a stake of R150 000 – which will be run at Clairwood on Saturday June 11.

Horses which are pre-entered for the finals before February 25 will have a jump start in the points race with an immediate allocation of five points. The pre-entry fee for the finals is R342 compared to R1 500 if the horse is entered for the final after February 25.