By Tendai Chisiri
The promotion missed the 2020 edition due to Covid-19 pandemic and it became the first year in the 34 year history it had been put on hold.
The final racing field was accepted at the acceptance ceremony on Tuesday and Mashonaland Turf Club (MTC) vice chairperson Scott Buchan managing the horse racing field for the promotion said it was a big field on the cards.“The OK Grand Challenge Race, will now from this race become a Grade 1 Race”, said Buchan.
The Race 1, the biggest attraction on the field as a grand prize of $US70, 000 and will be run on 1800 meters distance with 20 horses accepted to take part.
OK Zimbabwe marketing manager Juliet Ziswa highlighted on the growth of the OK Grand Challenge promotion which is an annual event run by OK Zimbabwe.
“The first edition of the promotion was launched in the month of April 1988 and the promotion is now 34 years old. It started as a ” 3 year Horse Race Day” event for punters before it was subsequently tied to the OK retail business”, she said.
The first promotion ran across 6 weeks leading to the race day. Now it is run from April to June. In the first promotion, for a purchase of five Zimbabwean dollars ($5) a customer would receive one of the coupons randomly at each till point.
This year’s theme “Racing 2 Happiness”, alludes to the happiness that OK Zimbabwe make tangible as they plant smiles on their employers,customers,suppliers, shareholders and communities they operate in.
5 stables are battling it out at the horse race day and the trainers said they are prepared for the day. Holy Land from Vanessa Birke stable is the favorite and the odds are tied with True Beauty. Daffiq of the Vanessa Birke follows the two on horses with low odds whilst Only Him is on the fourth. Lily Blue of the Bridget Stido stable is also with an odd below 10 but high than the others. What a Dandy is the last one with a low odd under 10 at 7.
Gokhan Terzi a trainer who has three horses is not pessimistic about winning.” We won the race last year and am not worried about the opposition as I know my horses can come 2nd or 3rd”, he said.
Thomas Mason, whose horse True Beauty won the Castle Tankard recently said the race day was much anticipated. “It is fantastic that OK Grand Challenge is back for its annual activity and that it has been promoted from Grade 2 to Grade 1”, he said.
Debra Swanson, Bridget Stido and Vanessa Birke also spoke glowingly of the event at the acceptance ceremony.
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