Last year, the race was sponsored to the tune of $50,000, but organising chairman, Khamal Khalfan, revealed they were considering increasing the stake to maintain the race’s status as the richest horse event in Zimbabwe.
Khalfan added that they were hoping to give the winning horse more than the $30,000 they offered Choisir last year. Along with the Castle Tankard and OK Grand Challenge, the Republic Cup forms the big three races in Zimbabwean horse racing.
D’Aquino, who lies fourth on the trainer’s table, is the Republic Cup race’s defending champion, after his win with Choisir last year.
The trainer is dreaming of making the Argentina-bred Choisir the first horse ever to defend the 1900-metre Grade Three race title.
The thoroughbred has already sounded warning signals, after finishing fourth in the OK Grand Challenge behind Ginepri, Madigan and A King Is Born. In that race, D’Aquino claimed one and four finishes, like in the 2012 republic Cup where Burmese Cat also finished among the top four.
This time though, D’Aquino looks forward to a clean sweep, if allowed to enter the same number of horses as he did in the OK Challenge, where he had six.
As defending champion, the son of Thunder and Glutch Choisir, owned by Steven Tomlinson, gets much of the attention in the Republic Cup. It remains to be seen if he will repeat the 2012 feat where, against all odds, he beat Borrowdale race course’s darling – Earl of Surrey – at the finish.
Choisir goes into the race with a record of 28 runs, five wins and 12 lacings. Prior to the OK Grand Challenge the seven year gelden had been rested for 216 days, forcing him to miss the Castle Tankard.
Post published in: Sport