by Magnat

The second meeting of the season will be held next Sunday 23rd January commencing at 1.30pm. It will be a ten race card, having nine trotting events and one flat race. All races will be over short distances, the trotting ones over a 2,140m distance, whilst thoroughbreds will run a 1,250m race.

This meeting will not feature any championship but it includes various interesting aspects. Thus, the Premier class race has a line-up worthy of a final with popular horses such as Arnie Sensation, Le Bon Mayennais, Liosco Atout, Lucas Ness, Madis Boy, Think Yatzee and various others (including the newcomers mentioned below) being scheduled to compete within a field of fourteen trotters.

Two Gold class races are on the card, with one being reserved for horses with highest points in that class, including some which are very close to the Premier class, such as Count of Life, Loulou des Vallees, Obi Wan Kenobi, Socrates and others. Even the other race includes various popular horses such as Nevermind, Landi Breton, Indian Attack and others.

The remaining trot races involve one Copper class, three Bronze class and two Silver class races.

A good number of new trotters are expected to make their debut. Two horses with a very good record overseas are registered to participate in the Premier class race. These are Swedish ten year old Affe Fager, having winnings of SEK1,878,673, 14 victories and various placings and a best time of 1’12’2 per kilometre, and French eleven year old Mocqueur du Caieu, having winnings of Euro478,880, with 13 wins and numerous placings and a best time of 1’11’9 per kilometre.

The other new horses are scheduled to be Blizzard (GER), Oberon Phi (FR), Parigot (FR) and Pout de Quelaines (FR) in the Bronze class, Nep (FR) and Oh Chef du Dray (FR) in the Silver class and New Sun (FR), Nobel Pasmarick (FR) and Notre Allegro (FR) in the Gold class.

Seven horses are scheduled to compete in the first Flat Race this season which is reserved for Class A. These include among others horses which have had recent good performances such as Lordswood, Minnow and Ollie Fliptrik and two new Irish horses, i.e. Buttermilk and Virginia Med.

Last meeting
The first official meeting of this season saw the commencement of the U*Bet championship over a 2,140m distance, reserved exclusively for Swedish trotters. Last Sunday’s heats involved the Silver and the Bronze classes (three heats in each class) and six trotters from each heat qualified for the semi-finals. In the Silver class heats, Matador Knick sprinted well in the last part of the race to win in a good time of 1’16’2 per kilometre, Bankir Zon won the second heat continuing where it left off last season which it finished with two consecutive wins, while Energy Launcher increased its speed in the last lap and went on to win the last heat. The Bronze class heats were won by Rybo Juvel (in a good time of 1’16’4 per kilometre), Tintin Haleryd and Lady June.

Apart from the U*Bet championship heats, we had an interesting Premier class race on 2,140m, which was won by French thirteen year old Ker Pellois which took the lead in the last 400m and went on to win in the meeting’s best time of 1’16’0, from Key Value, Le Coup de Foudre and Loustic d’Anjou.

A close finish characterised the MRC Festival Amateur Final for horses which normally compete in the old racecourse, and held on a 1,640m. This was won by I.P. Broadway by the smallest of margins from Firmin de Socoa.

Other news
At last Sunday’s meeting we saw the commencement of the application of the Malta Racing Club’s updated points system. Under the system as amended, the points attributed to the winning and placing horses have been retained at the same level, i.e. 30 points for the winner, 9 points for the runner-up, 5 points for a third place and 1 point for a fourth place.

However, the deduction of points for a no place have been changed to minus 5 points for the fifth and sixth places, minus 7 points for the seventh and eighth places and minus 9 points for the ninth and later places and disqualifications.

These changes are aimed at reflecting better the participating horses’ performance, classifying horses in the class which is most appropriate to them and closing some possible loopholes which might have existed.

Final word
We have thus started another horse-racing season, another season which we hope will be spectacular and exciting for the numerous spectators and other persons following this beautiful sport. Interestingly, unofficial statistics show that last year’s total paying spectators for race-meetings exceeded 36,500, which was the highest annual spectator turnout in the last seven years. The average attendance per meeting was just under 600, the second highest in the last seven years. These figures do not include paid up members, owners and drivers/jockeys.

Undoubtedly, these figures are encouraging, confirm the popularity of our sport and are of credit to all those who contribute to the organisation and growth of this sport as well as to all those actively involved therein, such as horse owners, trainers and drivers. Let’s hope that more people from different walks of life will be attracted to this sport this season so as to make it even more popular than it already is. Most of all we augur a season characterised by sportsmanship, where participants respect each other and practice the sport with a spirit of fair play and all of us rejoice with each worthy winner.

We wish you all another exciting meeting next Sunday.