It was raining, it was pouring, but the punters were definitely not snoring as the Hollywoodbets KZN Sizzling Summer Challenge went to Hollywoodbets Scottsville this past Sunday.
When there’s racing in KZN not even gloomy weather can stop the buzz on its racecourses. Regardless of which horses are running, top quality racing is always promised and that showed as people came out in their numbers to Hollywoodbets Scottsville with the Pick 6 pool reaching more than R1.7 million.
It was a day which saw the apprentices shoot up the leaderboard with Summer Cup-winning jock, Denis Schwarz riding a double on the card. This saw him climb from 19th place on Friday to 7th at the end of racing yesterday. Another impressive apprentice on Sunday’s card was Ashton Arries as he rode a massive double which saw him climb three places from 8th into 5th.
However, the man on everyone’s lips is Keagan de Melo, as he is the jockey who finds himself on top of the leaderboard after this weekend’s racing. Although he didn’t have a winner yesterday de Melo managed to run into the top three an incredible five times. This saw him climb from 4th into 1st this weekend overtaking Warren Kennedy who is two points behind in second.
In the trainers log the biggest move came from Dennis Drier. His 10 runners on the card saw him jump from 10th place into 1st. Although he hasn’t had a winner in the three race meetings of the challenge thus far, his high placings have seen him earn a seven-point lead from Mark Dixon.
Dixon who is back in second, has had one winner in the competition thus far which was ridden by Ashton Arries, News Stream, which was priced up at 33/1 at Hollywoodbets.
The horses log has seen 263 runners participate thus far, but it cannot be looked at with any confidence as it is still early in the competition and will make better reading in the new year.
The next race meeting of the Sizzling Summer Challenge sees the competition return to Hollywoodbets Scottsville on Wednesday. With a pick 6 promise of R1.1 million and with the competition heating up, you have to try your best to get to Hollywoodbets Scottsville or any Hollywoodbets branch nationwide.
Check out the full leaderboard by clicking here.
