All You Need To Know About The WSB Cape Town Met

The Cape’s flagship horserace and the pinnacle of the inaugural Hollywoodbets Kenilworth Summer Festival of Racing, the R2 million Gr1 Cape Town Met will be run for the 161 time under forecast sunny skies on Saturday with the fashionistas stepping out to showcase the Mardi Gras theme.

The bumper twelve race programme gets underway at 12h00 – the gates open at 11h00 – and with an anticipated crowd of 10 000 expected to enjoy the top-class horseracing in a wide variety of facilities, it is recommended that guests arrive early.

Parking is available infield via the Wetton Road entrance.

If you have made a late decision to go racing, the building venues are sold out, but there are a host of different options available outside.

The general entrance ticket costs R150, which gives the general punter access to:

• Food and drinks areas.
• Track access close to the finishing line.
• R50 TAB betting voucher.
• Grandstand Roulette: Cash and prizes to be won – a fantastic new initiative to reward the punters.

Cape Racing have also rewarded 300 regular punters with free entry, and they will be hosted to lunch in the Pocket Power facility.

“The whole day is focused on ‘winning’, so all the emphasis is on the stakeholders in the sport – rewarding punters, owners, trainers and jockeys. We have a massive stage for the winning moments, with owners being rewarded as we highlight the horse!” Cape Racing’s Kirsti Lyall told the Sporting Post on Monday.

For punters, the announcement that the Hong Kong World Pools will be at play on the day will be good news. TAB betting opened on Sunday 22 January.

While TAB will boost the Pick 6 and Quartet on the main race with R1-million carryovers, the last nine races on Met Day will also offer South African bettors the opportunity to bet into the Hong Kong Jockey Club World Pools.

TAB Win, Place, Exacta, Swinger and Quinella (first two horses across the line in any order) pools on Races 4 to 12 will be commingled into the Hong Kong Jockey Club tote, which operates the biggest tote pools in the world.

Last year, with punters from around the world betting into the Hong Kong World Pools, a whopping R650-million was wagered with the Hong Kong Jockey Club tote on eight of the 12 races at the corresponding race meeting. This should be surpassed this year as nine races form the World Pool event this time round.

Apart from offering the Quinella, which is not a standard bet that is offered on SA racing, the Win, Place, Swinger and Exacta pools will be substantial in races 4 to 12 where the Hong Kong Jockey Club host the pools.  Therefore, large bets will not alter the dividend as is normally the perception.

The Pick 6 starts in race 4 at 13h50 with the pool estimated to reach R10 million.

The quartet pool on the Met (Race 9) is estimated to reach R5 million.

The second Bipot commences in Race 7 at 15h40, with the pool estimated at R1 million.

The day will be broadcast live on Racing240 and streamed on GallopTV.

It will also be shown from 16h00 on the Arena Show on SABC, while SuperSport Variety 4 will show it from 16h30 to 17h30.

We asked why the Met is being run as late as 17h10?

“The main race has run at 17h10 for the last 4 years and sunset in Cape Town is at 19h54 on 28 January 2023,” confirmed Kirsti Lyall.

Both Jehan Malherbe and Rouvaun Smit are calling the racing on Saturday.

The Cape’s ‘Golden Voice’, Rouvaun Smit will call the World Sports Betting Cape Town Met for the eighth time.