Thursday, January 20, 2005
LITTLEWOODS BET DIRECT ALL-WEATHER CHAMPIONSHIPS TAKING SHAPE
Competition for the Littlewoods Bet Direct All-Weather Championships, run in association with the Racing Post and Weatherbys, becomes more intense each year with trainers and jockeys battling for honours.
The all-weather National Champion Jockey at the 2004/5 Championships, which started on November 8, 2004, and runs through until March 19, will receive a prize of £12,000.
The same amount will go to each of the Track Champion Trainers at Lingfield, Wolverhampton and Southwell.
A points system (1st=5 points, 2nd=2 points, 3rd=1 point with double points awarded for races worth £20,000 and over) will determine the champions, while there are additional prizes of £8,000 for the second jockey overall, with £4,000 for the third and £2,000 for the fourth.
Additionally, the stable staff of each of the three Individual Track Champion Trainers will receive £6,000.
Trophies for the Leading Owner, Trainer, Amateur Jockey and the "Horse Of The Season" will also be presented.
Eddie Ahern, up to the end of racing on Wednesday, January 19, currently heads the all-weather National Champion Jockey table with 34 wins which have accrued him 270 points.
He is only one point ahead of Neil Callan, runner-up for last season's award behind Ian Mongan. The Newmarket-based jockey's 38 victories have accrued 269 points.
Ahern and Callan are currently over a 100 points in front of their nearest rivals Robert Winston, Paul Hanagan, George Baker and Chris Catlin, who did his cause no harm with a double at Wolverhampton on Monday courtesy of Hiamovi and Ziet D'Alsace, a further winner at Southwell the next day with Hamburg Springer and victory yesterday at Lingfield on Llamadas.
Gary Moore is making a bold bid to retain the Individual Track Champion Trainer Award that he won last season at Lingfield - he currently heads the table at the Surrey course with 64 points (from 10 wins), 10 more than nearest pursuer John Best.
Mark Brisbourne heads the Wolverhampton field with 71 points from eight successes, 20 points in front of last year's heroine Gay Kelleway. David Barron leads at Southwell with 59 points from nine victories, just two points ahead of Kevin Ryan who is currently the leading National Trainer with 99 points accrued from 11 successes.
The awards will be presented at a dinner after racing at Lingfield on Saturday, March 19, the day of the Listed £100,000 Littlewoods Bet Direct Winter Derby and the £75,000 Littlewoods Bet Direct Spring Cup.
Gay Kelleway said today: "We won the All-Weather "Horse Of The Season" Award in 2002/3 with Lygeton Lad and that was exciting. We then exceeded our expectations when we won the Champion Trainer Award at Wolverhampton last season which was unbelievable.
"We also won nationally on the all-weather in terms of prize money with some really top horses but it's a lot more competitive this year.
"As for the prize which went to the stable staff, they are such hard workers and to get a bonus like that was fantastic for them. They were overwhelmed and, as there were only four of them, they really benefited well.
"Arena Leisure are great to do something like this - it is a shame we don't get more incentives like that throughout the grassroots."
The prestigious 10-furlong Winter Derby is the centrepiece of the European All-Weather Series 2005, which also incorporates races from four other major all-weather courses - Cagnes Sur Mer in France, which hosts the first leg on Saturday, February 12, Neuss in Germany (Sunday, February 27), Rome in Italy (Sunday, April 17) and Jagersro in Sweden (Thursday, May 12).
For the second year running, these five courses have joined together to offer a substantial bonus to the owner of any horse that can manage to win at least three of the five events. Three wins means a bonus of 50,000 euros while four wins generates 100,000 euros and a clean sweep 250,000 euros. There will be a minimum travel allowance of 1,000 euros to any foreign trained horse not placed first, second or third in each race.
BETDAQ ANNOUNCES HARTNETT DEPARTURE
BETDAQ has announced that Rob Hartnett is to leave his position as Managing Director of it's UK division in mid-February. Hartnett is leaving to head up a new media and betting organisation which will be launching in 2005 with the backing of some of the leading players in British racing. BETDAQ CEO Brian O'Sullivan will take over his duties pending further appointments in the months ahead.
Hartnett joined BETDAQ from the Tote in 2001, and was responsible for its UK launch in 2002. He has been a vocal proponent of the exchange model through the passage of the Gambling Bill.
"Rob has made a great contribution to the success of BETDAQ since he joined us" said O'Sullivan. "We head into 2005 in a strong position with key partners in Channel 4, Casino-on-Net and Citic Pacific up and running and, while we are sorry to lose Rob, BETDAQ has an excellent management team in place and we will be adding a few new faces in the coming months ."
"It has not been an easy decision to leave BETDAQ, and the team of people behind it," added Hartnett, "but my new venture presents a fresh and very exciting challenge. More details will be announced about it in the spring."
For old articles (from 1st March 2000) go to the Newslink
Archive
|
