Huge stake increase for Cape Guineas in December

In three months’ time, this could be the scenario in a number of households in the Cape: “Yes, darling, I know we said we’d do the Christmas shopping on Saturday, but do you think we could make it Sunday? I really need to go to the Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas at Kenilworth.”

The grade 1 race scheduled for December 17 has had a big boost with Cape Racing announcing that sports betting operator Hollywoodbets is the new sponsor and the stake has been increased from R750,000 in 2021 to R2m this year.

First run at Milnerton in 1955 as the Cape Of Good Hope Guineas, past winners include champions such as Horse Chestnut, Jet Master, Captain Al, Variety Club and Capetown Noir.

“We are thrilled that Hollywoodbets have again stepped forward to inject their power brand of magic into one of the great feature events of the Cape summer festival,” said Justin Vermaak, head of Cape Racing operations.

“The substantially increased stake of R2m makes the Cape Guineas the richest classic on the national calendar and we can be assured that every top three-year-old in SA will line up on December 17,” he said.

Hollywoodbets brand & communications manager Devin Heffer said: “As the purple brand expands its horse racing coverage in the Cape, developing a feature day to match the L’Ormarins King’s Plate and WSB Cape Town Met is a challenge the Hollywoodbets team is ready to tackle.

“Increasing the stake to R2m reaffirms our belief in the quality of this race and the prestige which comes with winning it. You only get one shot at the Guineas and it’s right that the winning connections get duly rewarded.

“We will be looking at including other partners to join us in the naming of races as we did with the Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge,” said Heffer.

• There was no racing in the UK on Monday as the funeral of Queen Elizabeth took place at Westminster Abbey. In an interview, the queen’s racing manager, John Warren, revealed how excited she was just two days before her death with the win at Goodwood by her horse Love Affairs.

It was the Queen’s final winner in her long association with racing, which began even before her 70-year reign.

Warren believes the Queen’s Ascot Gold Cup win with Emulate in 2013 was the highlight of her time in racing. “I think it was everything that she’d put into breeding horses and racing horses, achieving an ambition which is no different to any parent wanting their child to win at the Olympics. This felt the same elation as that,” said Warren.

“The Queen has definitely been excited and emotionally charged about having other winners but to have one at Ascot where the eyes are on, I think this one was so satisfying because it was such an iconic race.

“What I find totally remarkable about the Queen was her ability to get so much pleasure out of any horse, no matter what level that horse was able to achieve,” Warren added.