Like in previous years the first championship of the season is the one sponsored by Assikura Insurance Brokers Ltd for Gold and Bronze Categories.

The Gold category went into action with 6 heats on Sunday 14th February so that from the 65 horses that took part 24 made it to the semi finals that were raced last Sunday.  From these two semi finals 10 horses qualified and these include 5 of the 6 qualification heat winners. Unfortunately this morning saw the withdrawal of Made In Hoff so the final will consist of only 9 runners.

The final is going to be held on Sunday 13th March and a great race is predicted because the nine horses have already shown great potential even though some of them are relatively new to our racetrack. Amongst these we have two horses that have won both the heats and the semi finals – Power To Be and Royal In with the latter also being last year’s most consistent horse.  Today we had the draws for this final.

The nine horses will be starting with the following numbers behind the autostart:

1. ENERGITJ

2. QUEFI DES CAILLONS

3. MAGIC BROLINE

4. QURIEUX DU PONCHET

5. PALAZIO VALTERNE

6. POWER TO BE

7. LOVER ROC

8. MADRILENO

9. ROYAL IN

The prize money in this final is - €900 - €400 - €200 - €100

In the meantime on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st February we saw the start of the championship reserved for the Bronze category.  A total of 9 qualifying heats were held with 95 horses taking part so that 36 made it to the three semi finals which will be raced on 6th March.  The final is planned for Saturday 19th March and prize money is €450 - €200 - €100 - €50.

The press conference was addressed by the Managing Director of Assikura Insurance Brokers Ltd Mr Andrew Grech as well as the General Secretary of the Malta Racing Club Mr Anthony Demanuele.

Lorraine Cunningham

Public Relations & Media Officer

Malta Racing Club

MRC/01/16