by Magnat

Horse-racing meetings will be held at the Marsa racetrack in the next couple of weekends, one this coming Sunday 19th February and another the following Sunday 26th February.  Each meeting starts at 1.30pm and consists of no less than 11 races, all trot races over a 2,140m distance, except for one flat race on next Sunday’s race card.

The main attraction of next Sunday’s meeting consists of the two Assikura Championship finals for trotters which are neither French nor Swedish.  In the Category A final, nearly all the ten finalists compete in the Premier or Gold classes and all participants are quality horses.  The full list is Big Hit, Knockout Molar, Indian Attack, Zilver Boko, Socrates, Darco As, Count of Life, Side Spin, Newman and Reado November – 3 Danes, 3 Germans, 2 Finns, 1 Dutch and 1 US.

Even the Category B final being run on the same day is replete with interesting protagonists.  These are Klokkeblomst, Ackaturbo, Splanky, Morgan Kane, Prince Regent, Joker Pitstop, Lady Holmely, Giant Game, Hawkear and Garden Pax – 6 Danish, and 1 each from Belgium, Finland, Norway and USA.

Due to the desire to give horses competing in the Tazza l-Kbira a couple of weeks’ rest prior to the heats, three Premier class races and a race for horses with the highest points in the Gold class will be held next Sunday.

Each of the three Premier class races has a full field of 16 registered horses.  These include trotters of the highest quality, from recent winners such as Nuage de Bourgogne, Nabab du Chatelet, Label Chouan and others, to various established horses, as well as newcomers Idea di Re (IT), Natif de Fontaine (FR) and Nougat Voideen.  They are extremely balanced races that should be spectacular.

The same can be said for the Gold class races, one of which will be held this Sunday and the other three on Sunday 26th February. 

Even these include many interesting horses.  Those which have until recently been racing in the Premier class, such as Arifant, Nagano Phedo, Nous Dix de l’Erve, Obi Wan Kenobi and others, those coming from a win in their last race, such as Le Bon Mayennais, Orlando Tejy, Orphee Kadesh, Oscar de la Vallee and Ouragan d’Any, newcomers Delicious Brother (NO), Okir de Leau (FR), Paradis du Lupin (FR), Prince November (SE) and Simb From Abroad (SE), and all the other valid horses.

Apart from the abovementioned newcomers, Petrus du Vivier (FR) is also registered to make its debut in the Silver class.  

The class A flat race will be contested on the long 2,250m distance by seven horses.  These are newcomer Carling (GB), recent newcomers Capital Hill and Palagonia, Ollie Fliptrick, runner-up a couple of weeks’ ago, Piscopo Cup winner Friarscourt, double Mediterranean Derby winner Just The Best, and Pride of India, making its return after a three months’ absence.

Two finals, various Premier and Gold class races, a class A flat race and bumper 11-race programmes – all the ingredients for two entertaining afternoons at the racecourse.

Last meetings 

Last weekend’s meetings were characterised by various very good times of under 1’16’8 per kilometre which were clocked in Premier and Gold class races on the 2,640m distance.

In Friday’s Premier class race, newcomer Nino de Saintho took an early lead which it maintained for around the first lap, until it was overtaken by Normand d’Oger and another newcomer Nabab du Chatelet.  The latter took the lead in the last half lap and maintained it till the end to win in 1’16’7 per kilometre, ahead of Bonus Kall, Nono de Crouay and Normand d’Oger.

In Sunday’s Premier class race, Utah Hornline was the first to go in front, but it was soon overtaken by Nevaio des Bordes, which maintained the lead until it was challenged by True Q around 150m from the end.  Nevaio des Bordes broke stride and was disqualified, with True Q going on to take its second consecutive win in a time of 1’16’6 per kilometre, the best time so far this season on this distance.

In Friday’s first Gold class race, Oscar de la Vallee launched a strong attack around 500m from the end, which enabled it to take the lead and to win by a wide margin from Frasse Filiokus, Magnifique Sablais and Nacarat Campbell.

The second Gold class race saw one of the closest finishes of the weekend, with four horses ending just a few metres from each other.  Ouragan d’Any took its first win in Malta by half a length from Max Galbe, with Pirate d’Urzy and Matador Knick taking the other places.

Then, on Sunday, Label Chouan took its second consecutive win when it dominated its race from start to finish, increasing its speed as the race progressed.  It won comfortably in a time of 1’16’6 per kilometre ahead of Dialect Af Prinfo, L’An Deux Milles and Keeping Quality.

The final Gold class race saw Orlando Tejy taking the lead with around half a lap to go and by the end increasing it to around 4 lengths to take its first win in the last four months in another time of 1’16’6 per kilometre, ahead of Hulot, Nicos de Peneme and Victory Toll.

The other races were won by Orgeat, Le Bon Mayennais, Prince du Moutier, Norfolk de Gouerie and Orphee Kadesh in the Silver Class, Owens Kin and Notre Joyeux in the Bronze class and Qualou d’Axel and Noli de Marray in the Copper class.

The Malta Horse Racing Awards

On Friday evening 24th February, the Malta Racing Club together with the Kunsill Malti ghall-iSport are organising the first edition of the Malta Horse Racing Awards, at the New Dolmen Hotel, Qawra. 

This will be a special evening intended to honour the best performers in terms of horses, jockeys and drivers during the 2011 season, thus putting horse-racing on par with the other most popular sports in Malta and giving due recognition to the achievements of participants in this sport.

The awards will include the Best Driver, Best Apprentice Driver, Best Jockey, Most Consistent Trotter,  Most Consistent Thoroughbred and other honours.  Furthermore, we will also honour the memory of Charles Clifton and George Schembri, two drivers that have died over the last year.

This awards night will be sponsored by Assikura Insurance, Emotions, Marindex Trophies, New Dolmen Hotel, Print It and Valletta Fund Management – we thank these sponsors for their support.  It will also be screened on television on Education 22 on Saturday 25th February, with a repetition on Tuesday 28th February.

We wish a great evening to all attendees and a successful start to this praiseworthy initiative.

Thirty years ago

Recently a couple of newspapers of the 15th February 1982 came to hand and instinctively I turned to the back pages, specifically the horse-racing report.  Precisely 30 years ago... Time tends to cloud our memories until something brings them back in focus. 

It was an interesting time for our sport.  After the revival of the seventies with various exciting new imports, the eighties heralded an era of innovations, such as the new racecourse, the autostart, the photofinish, various quality horses etc, which attracted a big following for this sport.

As is typical of this time of year, Sunday 14th February 1982 was a cold afternoon, with racing held under an overcast sky, but which still attracted a bumper crowd. This was the Ladies Jockeys weekend held over two days in which ponies “Scurry races” were held with the participation of British Lady Jockeys.    

However that programme also included five trotting events.  The main attraction was the last handicap race on the card, that for class A1 trotters, for the E.W. MacAdie Stakes.

Gael, one of the favourites, was scratched just before the start, with eight trotters contesting the race.

Former champion Espoir de Marais (then 12 years old) which needed to win to keep its place in class A1, took an immediate lead together with 10 year old Galgal and led for the first 300m, at which stage 8 year old Iso du Pont took over until midway through the 2,200m race, with Galgal and Espoir de Marais in pursuit.

Meanwhile 11 year old Flavacour started advancing well and was in fourth place at the start of the last lap.  It launched its attack on the back straight, overtook Espoir de Marais and then Galgal in the last bend, starting the final straight on the outside of leader Iso du Pont.

Midway through the final straight Iso du Pont and Flavacour were challenging each other head to head, but with around 50m to go, Espoir de Marais challenged the leading duo with an impressive sprint.  By now the entire crowd was on its feet, as Flavacour, driven by Joe Falzon, took the lead and finished half a length ahead of Espoir de Marais and Iso du Pont in that order, to take its third win from four races, despite starting with a staggering 50m handicap.

Two class A races were also held, with Dicav beating Hourra Vaci and Galdos in that order in the first, whilst Eldy des Etangs finished first in front of Echo de Piltiere and Grille Bois in the other.

Falbala du Val won the class C race in front of Hectowatt and Fin Champagne, with Caviar winning the class D event from Cesar d’Orge and Twist A respectively.

At the end of the meeting, Mr E.W. MacAdie, Chairman of Maxotels and sponsor of the Lady Jockeys weekend presented cups and trophies to the winners.

Unbelievable, but 30 years have passed since then.  However the names of these horses continue to live on in Maltese horse-racing history and bring so many great memories of popular horses and exciting races ...

We wish you all exciting meetings in the coming two weekends.