Durban
Organisers of the greatest horse race in Africa – the Vodacom Durban July– on Thursday threw their support behind one of the biggest sporting events on the globe, the Commonwealth Games.
And Graeme Hawkins, Gold Circle’s racing and marketing executive, welcomed the team from the South African bid committee which is working flat out to get the 2022 games staged in Durban.
Although Durban is now the only candidate city for the mega sporting event, Hawkins told guests at Greyville Racecourse at Thursday’s launch of the 2015 horseracing Champions Season, that it was not a “done deal” that the city would be the host.
The “brave people” in the team had to give a final presentation in New Zealand in September, he said, urging guests to throw their weight behind the bid.
Guests – jockeys, trainers, owners, sponsors, the media and the MEC for Finance, Belinda Scott – received brochures about the Durban bid, which explained that the city was “ready to inspire” the world at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Hawkins also announced that there would be 18 runners in Gold Circle’s flagship R3.5 million Vodacom Durban July this year, two more than originally planned.
There are 67 horses in the first round of entries for the race on July 4 and there will be two further rounds before the final list is announced.
The theme of this year’s Vodacom Durban July is “The Captain’s Table,” and with Thursday’s launch of the Champions Season “the ship has seriously set sail,” Hawkins said.
Champions Season spans May, June and July when “new heroes will emerge,” he said.