There has not been an Equus Awards press release about the final points standings for the equine section of the Equus Awards, but a quick calculation shows Dave The King to have moved past his stablemate Gimme A Nother into the top spot for the Equus Horse Of The Year category.
However, it should be noted that the points logs hold no weight in deciding the champions, as they did last year, but are just there as a guideline for the expert panel, and there is also no longer a public vote.
This is probably as a result of the travesty last year when Hollywoodbets Durban July winner Winchester Mansion landed the Middle Distance award ahead of See It Again, despite the latter having clearly been the best performer in the category.
Dave The King was not even in the top five in the standings when the points standings were last released on July 10.
However, the Gr 1 HKJC Champions Cup he won on the last weekend of the season is regarded as a “Super Grade 1” and the 48 points he earned took him from 72 points to 120 points, surpassing Gimme A Nother’s 104 points.
His win did not change anything in the Equus Middle Distance award which is comfortably led by Royal Victory on 90 points.
It should be noted that the the four distance-related categories (Champion Sprinter, Miler, Middle Distance, and Stayer) excludes performances in age-group restricted races, meaning Green With Envy did not accumulate any points towards the Equus Middle Distance award for his victories in the Gr 1 Splashout Cape Derby and Gr 1 Daily News 2000.
However, Dave The King would have moved into the lead in the Champion Older male category ahead of Royal Victory and Thunderstruck.
Dave The King is on top of the Champion Miler category too.
Thunderstruck stays on top of the Champion Sprinter category thanks to Lucky Lad’s failure to win the Gr 1 Mercury Sprint. Lucky Lad got 20 points for second in the Mercury Sprint but that left him eight points shy of his stablemate.
Proceed stays on top of the log in the Champion Two-year-old male category thanks to a filly, VJ’s Angel, winning the Gr 1 World Pool Moment Of The Day Champion Stakes.
The new darling of the SA Turf, Quid Pro Quo, is way clear on top of the Equus Two-year-old filly category.
No three-year-olds performed well enough on World Pool Gold Cup day to threaten Green With Envy’s and Gimme A Nother’s positions on top of the Equus Three-year-old Male and Equus Three-year-old filly categories respectively.
Likewise, Princess Calla was not ousted from her position on top of the Champion Older Female category.
In the stayers category Master Redoute would have joined Red Maple on top on 18 points.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE EQUUS POINTS SCORING SYSTEM
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE LOGS AS OF JULY 10
The expert panel consists of Graeme Hawkins (chair), Deez Dayanand, Vicky Minott, Nico Kritsiotis and Rouvaun Smit.
