Greyville Racecourse and Gold Circle played host to a highly successful Vodacom Durban July Racemeeting on Saturday but the cherry on the top was the announcement by Vodacom’s Regional Manager in KwaZulu-Natal, Mr Alberts Breedt, that sponsors Vodacom had exercised their options to renew their contract for a further three years.

 

Breedt said that he had been extremely happy with Saturday’s event and was delighted to announce Vodacom’s support for a further three years.

 

Official attendance at Greyville on Saturday was 53 002 and the betting on this year’s Vodacom Durban July showed a healthy increase as total SAFtote takings on the day rose to R79,4 million, a 21% increase on last year’s R65,8 million.

 

However, Gold Circle CEO, Michel Nairac, pointed out that some of the increase was due to co-mingling of certain pools with international clients.

 

Gold Circle’s turnover on the day was up 13% from R43 million last year to R49,1 million this year.

 

The main contributing factor to the big increases was the co-mingling on the Win, Place and Trifecta pools on the Vodacom Durban July.

 

The Win pool showed a 28% increase from R7,5 million to R9,6 million while the Place pool showed a 23% increase, up from R5,5 million to 6,7 million.

 

The Trifecta jumped a staggering 49%, up from R4 million last year to R6 million this year.

 

The net Place Accumulator Pool reached R3,6 million while the Pick 6 net pool topped R4,2 million.

 

The two Jackpots on the day amounted to a combined nett pool of R2,5 million.