
King Pelles rules over the Gold Cup market
For decades the Gold Cup at Greyville was famous for its longshot winners. But in recent years the formbook has proven to be a more reliable guide for punters.
When declarations for South Africa's premier marathon horse race were announced this week, bookmakers quickly pegged obvious favourite King Pelles at a prohibitive R1.65 for the Win (and R0.31 the Place!). That would have been unheard of in the days when the punters' game was finding the traditional end-of-season 'roughie'.
Racing being the funny old game it is, though, there'll still be a search for value among the 13 runners before the start at the 3200m pole at Greyville on Sunday 27 July.
Holding Thumbs is well regarded by his trainer Glen Kotzen and has been developing into a decent stayer, so his R4.55 looks fair value – until one scrutinises his most recent run, in the Gold Vase on July day, when he was made to look pedestrian by King Pelles.
Madison Valley ran a commendable fifth in the July and leading jockey Gavin Lerena was encouraged enough by what he felt that day to stick with the four-year-old. That makes his R6.25 Win worth considering.
Shoot The Rapids, a close runner-up in this race last year, has all the stamina needed to outlast his rivals, but hasn't been in the best of form recently.
It might pay to keep a close eye on the Gold Cup betting market over the next week, especially for moves for runners with no proven record the marathon trip. What happens on the gallops seldom stays on the gallops.
Gold Cup betting:
King Pelles – R1.65
Holding Thumbs – R4.55
Madison Valley – R6.25
Future Swing – R8.33
Navajo Nation – R10.00
Shoot The Rapids – R12.50
Nebraas – R12.50
Bournemouth – R14.30
Cape Eagle – R16.67
Blackberry Malt – R16.67
Field Marshall – R33.33
Taxhaven – R40.00
Positive Attitude – R75.00

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Citizen
2 days ago
- The Citizen
KZN trainers strike back
Stuart Ferrie and Gareth van Zyl cap good season for locals. There was plenty of hot action at Greyville at the weekend. Picture: Gallo Images Gold Cup day highlighted an interesting trend of the 2025 Champions Season in KwaZulu-Natal: a re-emergence into the spotlight of the host province's training yards. Stuart Ferrie and Gareth van Zyl ended the season on a triumphant note at Greyville on Sunday, saddling Gladatorian and King Pelles to victory in two of South Africa's pre-eminent races – the HKJC Champions Cup and the World Pool Gold Cup respectively. Ferrie, Van Zyl and their compatriots have given KwaZulu-Natal racing its best winter for ages – fighting back against the powerful Western Cape and Highveld stables who had been carrying off most of the season's abundant loot for decades. An unlikely ally in the fightback has been from the Eastern Cape backwaters – Fairview ace trainer Alan Greeff, who landed three KZN features (two Grade 1s and a Grade 2) with his raiders. When Peter Muscutt won the East Coast Cup (Listed) with a filly called Mascerina at a soggy Greyville on 3 May – the first day of the famed Champions Season – no-one saw it a harbinger of bigger things to come for his fellow local yokels. Yet, in the next race on the card, Ferrie sent out his stable star Gladatorian to land the Drill Hall Stakes (Grade 2) – just ahead of Summerveld neighbours Michael Roberts and See It Again. The following week, Selukwe won the WSB 1900 at Greyville. Though carded under Cape-based Andre Nel's name, Selukwe had been resident at Summerveld for some time and prepared there by satellite assistant conditioner Byron Foster. It was business as usual as the Guineas, Daily News, Woolavington and Golden Horse trophies all shipped to Cape Town, but the hegemony was disrupted by the man from Gqeberha, Greeff, who won the Grade 1 Alan Robetson Championship with Direct Hit. Then Durban's Frank Robinson won the Cup Trial with Madison Valley, Van Zyl the Tote Derby with King Pelles and Alyson Wright the Tote Oaks with She's A Bomber. KZN Breeders' Day was almost a KZN clean sweep, with Ferrie, Doug Campbell, the Moores and the Hills leading in feature winners. The biggest prize, the Hollywoodbets Durban July, eluded KZN yet again, but Ferrie and Van Zyl had feature success on the day with, respectively, I Am Giant in the Grade 2 Post Merchants and King Pelles in the Grade 3 Gold Vase – as did Greeff with Anotherdancefor me in the Grade 2 Golden Slipper. Then it was Gold Cup day and the glories mentioned above. Also, Greeff snatched the Grade 1 Douglas Whyte Thekwini Stakes with shooting star Golden Palm. To round things off, Muscutt, who had started the KZN run, won the Listed Darley Arabian with appropriately named I Salute You. It's too soon to talk of an ongoing renaissance for KwaZulu-Natal training yards, but they certainly have had a major fillip in terms of big-race results. The winning mood could be a result of optimism and positive thinking brought about by the financial salvation job by Hollywood in the province. An economic boost can do that.


The Citizen
4 days ago
- The Citizen
A Cup of gold beckons
Even 100-1 shot has case in Greyville marathon. The World Pool Gold Cup 3200m marathon often throws up surprises, so the Quartet bet is a must for all punters looking for a big payday at Greyville on Sunday. The Quartet pool on Race 7 is set to hit R10-million, while the bookmaker odds are 6-1 bar one. That spells good value. The good form of favourite King Pelles (2.60 a Win) makes him impossible to ignore as a banker choice. But, after that, all bets are off – or rather ON! Even rank outsider Positive Attitude (101.00), has a case. This Dennis Bosch-trained six-year-old has run no fewer than eight of his last nine runs on soft ground, which doesn't seem to suit him. The sole effort not in the slosh, on the Greyville Polytrack, he won well. He is a son of speed sire Rafeef, but he has won over 3000m. Put him in. A more obvious candidate for inclusion is Holding Thumbs (6.00), who was runner-up to King Pelles in both the Tote Derby at Scottsville and the Gold Vase at Greyville. There is no reason to think he can turn around that form but he could be in the mix at the end of the long trek. Madison Valley (9.00) ran a cracking race for trainer Frank Robinson in the Durban July, finishing fifth, just 3.15 lengths off the winner. He's in good nick and a further plus is that leading jockey Gavin Lerena has opted to stay aboard. Madison Valley's stablemate Shoot The Rapids (15.00) was close-up runner-up in the 2024 Gold Cup and has shown signs of a return to best form after being gelded earlier this year. Champion jockey Richard Fourie can sniff out an unlikely winner if anyone can. He has chosen to ride Eastern Cape raider Bournemouth (17.00), who has ruled the stamina roost at Fairview this year. Future Swing, Navajo Nation and Nebraas might also be weighed up. A selection: 3 Positive Attitude, 1 Shoot The Rapids, 4 King Pelles, 2 Madison Valley


The Citizen
6 days ago
- The Citizen
R10m Pick 6 ends season with a bang
It's also a World Pool day at Greyville. A Pick 6 with a likely pool of R10-million tops the betting menu at Sunday's Gold Cup race meeting at Greyville. It is a last chance to play for outsize payouts for a while as the fixture is a climactic send-off of the 2025 season. It's not just the Pick 6 that will draw in punters. The Quartet on the World Pool Gold Cup itself – South Africa's most important marathon race – is predicted to top R2-million, thanks to TAB bunging in a R500,000 carryover. As the big-race sponsor indicates, the meeting is a Hong Kong World Pool event. This means all TAB betting (accessible through Betway) on the card will be comingled into gigantic pools hosted by the Hong Kong Jockey Club and open to punters in racing centres around the world. The World Pool bets are Win, Place, Exacta, Quinella and Swinger. These bets must be in multiples of R2 – for example, R8, R10, R12 and so on. In addition to the Gold Cup, Race 7 on the card, four Grade 1 contests and five other feature events make up the 10-race bill of fare. The R1.5-million HKJC Champions Cup over 1800m is the headline grabber as it sees Durban July champion The Real Prince taking on Equus Horse of the Year Dave The King, who won the race last year. These two charismatic stars were level-pegging at 1.36 for the Win on Wednesday afternoon. The Mercury Sprint sees some of the country's best speedsters vying for a R1-million purse. The ante-post favourite here is Tenango at 1.40, with Mia Moo, I Am Giant and Buffalo Storm Cody jointly on offer at 2.00. The Douglas Whyte Thekwini Stakes (Race 4) honours the famous Durbanite who ruled the Hong Kong jockey championship for more than a decade and who now runs a successful training yard in the racing-mad enclave. Interestingly, the hot-pot favourite here is an uncommon raider from the Eastern Cape, Alan Greef-trained Golden Palm (1.05) to be ridden by champion jockey Richard Fourie. The filly goes for a fourth win in a row, within five months, and offers a potential banker for punters to kick off their assault on the R10-million Pick 6.