The Betway Summer Cup is undoubtedly one of South Africa’s most enjoyable meetings to attend and never fails to live up to expectations (Picture: The Citizen)
The handicappers have rated the Betway Summer Cup and it must be one of the few times, if not the only time, in the history of the merit rating system in South Africa that the line horse in a major race in South Africa has been deemed to be a horse that was under sufferance.
South African horseracing falls under the Asian Racing Federation and the Graded status of races is decided by the Asian Pattern Committee (APC).
If a race fails to meet the APC benchmarks for Gr 1 status on three consecutive runnings it becomes eligible for a downgrade.
The Woolavington 2000, for example, failed to meet those benchmarks on three consecutive occasions when it was a level weights race restricted to three-year-old fillies.
However, in order to not downgrade it immediately an appeal was made to the APC whereby the conditions of the race were to be changed.
The conditions of the race were therefore changed into a weight for age event for fillies and mares of all ages and the Gr 1 status remained.
However, it failed to meet the APC benchmarks for a Gr 1 in a further two renewals.
The benchmark level is based on the performance ability of the first four finishers in the race.
However, this performance is based on the first four horses’ best performances of the whole season.
So if a horse ran to a certain performance level when finishing in the first four in the Summer Cup, but then ran to a higher performance level when running in, for example, the Hollywoodbets Durban July, the July performance is the one which counts towards rating the Summer Cup’s level.
The first four past the post in the Betway Summer Cup this year were merit rated 105, 112, 111 and 112 (Mocha Blend, Olivia’s Way, The Ultimate King and Busstopinhounslow).
Last year the first four were Atticus Finch (112), Purple Pitcher (123), Rule By Force (112) and Madison Valley (110).
In 2023 it was Royal Victory (111), Safe Passage (117), Bless My Stars (119), Zeus (1111).
It is an anomaly that the country’s richest race does not attract the interest of a lot of the most powerful yards, but perhaps that will change now that a raider has won the race for the second time in the last three renewals.
There is little doubt that the Betway Summer Cup is one of the top meetings to attend in South Africa and it is always full of vibe and enjoyment and exciting racing.
The Summer Cup also matches the Hollywoodbets Durban July as a betting event, being a handicap and with every horse in the field having a win or at least a place chance.
It would be a tragedy for the meeting if the big one on the day lost its Gr 1 status.
Summerveld has been shown to be a good base from which to launch a Summer Cup bid.
The aforementioned yards who avoid the Summer Cup are generally the big Cape yards and the Kommetdieding experience could not have helped their fears of sending Summer Cup raiders.
However, perhaps some of them will keep one or two of their better older horses behind at Summerveld after the Champions Season with the Summer Cup in mind.
Summerveld not only has the advantage of proximity to Turffontein, being about a six hour drive, but it is also already at a third of the altitude of Johannesburg, meaning it is easier for a horse traveling from their to adapt to altitude than it would be for one traveling from sea level in Cape Town.
The Summer Cup might have been threatened with a demotion of status before, considering the bottom weight was recently moved upward from 52kg to 54kg.
This year’s result might prompt renewed fears that the iconic race could lose it’s Gr 1 status.
However, the best scenario would be that it keeps its Gr 1 status through the support of some big Cape Town yards, who could use Summerveld as their launching pad.
