by Magnat

Another race-meeting will be held next Sunday 17th October at the Marsa race track with the first race being scheduled for 2pm.
The race card consists of 8 trotting races and one flat race.

Seven of the trotting races will be run on a long 3,140m distance, one open race will be run on 2,140m, whilst the flat race will be contested by six horses on a short distance of 1,250m. All trot classes will be in action except the Gold class, with three races being reserved for the Silver class.

The races for the Copper, Bronze and Silver classes will be condition races which will result in a final for qualifying horses in each respective class.

Interestingly, the plan is that condition races will be organised for these classes as well as the Gold class (heats for this class will be held next week) with four horses qualifying for the final from each heat for the Copper, Silver (two finals will be organised for this class, one reserved for those with more points and another for the other horses) and Gold classes and two horses qualifying from each heat for the Bronze class final. All heats and finals will be over the 3,140m distance, with the finals being held on the 7th November, together with the Dragonara Casino Championship final.

Competing over such a long distance (and in this case even the holding of finals over this distance) from time to time is important because it gives horses which prefer long races an opportunity to shine over their favourite distance.

The eighth race on the card, reserved for the Premier class, should be a keenly contested race and sees a full complement of 16 horses registered. It includes a number of well-known trotters such as Lovely Mab, Liosco Atout, Isolated and others, some of which also had some good performances over long distances, in Malta and in their overseas career.

The fifth race is the Malta – Eskilstana Finn-Tack Amateur race which will be an Open race featuring a number of Maltese and Swedish drivers. Such initiatives are extremely interesting because they enable the Maltese public to watch foreign drivers in action, allow Maltese drivers to test themselves against foreign competition and give the opportunity to local horse-racing personnel to meet their foreign counterparts and learn from their experiences.

Two new horses are scheduled to make their debut, i.e. Cocos Kaos (SE) in the Open race (Bronze) class and Neo Sauconnier (FR) in the Silver class.

Last week’s races saw the start of the Dragonara Casino Championship with forty six of Malta’s top horses being in action over a 2,640m distance. Some top class racing took place with twenty horses (11 French, 6 Swedish, a Norwegian horse, a Dutch horse and an Italian debutant) making it to the semi-finals which will be held next week.
The main honours went to the four winners, i.e. Swedish newcomer Play on Me which registered the weekend’s best time of 1’16’6 per kilometre, Arnie Sensation, another Swedish horse, and French horses Kakisis (at his second consecutive win) and Lipouz Lesmelchen.

The flat race resulted in the second consecutive win from as many races for British thoroughbred Uncle Bertie, showing that it has the capability to win even on the long distance of 2,250m.

We also saw the season’s first dead heat in Friday’s last race reserved for the Bronze class (between Karl Borealis and Lazume Simoni). The photo-finish normally manages to provide a winner to every race, but this time this was not possible because the photo showed that both horses had reached the finishing post precisely together.

Watching the programmes dedicated to horse-racing on different television stations last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as well as listening to the live radio transmissions from the race-course in the weekend made me reflect on the importance of publicity for this sport. Such publicity enables horse-racing to get the attention of a wider audience which could in turn encourage more spectator turnout and more interest from potential sponsors.

I thank those stations which provide space to this sport as well as the dedicated journalists who follow and give exposure to it on television, radio, paper and web newspapers, providing previews, results and other useful information. I hope that other stations and newspapers may become interested in dedicating airtime and space to this popular sport thus bringing it more to life and satisfying the wish of its many followers.

Best wishes for another exciting meeting next Sunday.