17 Apr 2017

Local horses ruled the day at  this year’s Mascom derby with Charleshill dominating most of the races.

A horse from Charleshill named Atantic Call made the country proud as it was crowned the champion of the 2400 metres grand finale and also took position one in 1600 metres respectively.  Jon Douglas from Charleshill became second, followed by Double Action in third place.

Last year the grand race was won by a horse from Namibia named You Touch My Heart while John Doughlas from Charleshill came second. In the races, Charleshill continued to shine as most horses got position one, two and three respectively. 

This time the derby had horses from Botswana and Lesotho only with 88 horses competing in 11 races. The event featured two categories namely Tswana and Thorough breeds and races ranged from 800 metres to 24 000 metres.

In an interview, the owner of Atantic Call, Joseph Kanangizi could not hide his joy noting that his horses and some from Charleshill area had been performing badly in the previous years.

He said this year they were committed to impress their supporters as they managed to prepare well for the races.

 He stated that for horses to perform well, they needed proper care. Last year he said his horses had an accident while travelling to Maun to compete and failed to bring expected results.

Regarding the competition, he said it was fair and congratulated the organising committee for a job well done noting that every year there was an improvement.

One of the participants from Lesotho, Tumisang Masiloane shared sthe sentiments that the competition was fair despite the fact that his horses did not perform well. His two horses got position five in 1600 and 2400 metres respectively.

However, he advised the organisers to channel the invitations through their embassy office in Botswana in future noting that the current arrangement whereby people were invited individually disadvantaged many horse owners.

“I believe if the invitation is done through our embassy, our government could assist us with sponsorship,” he added.

 Mascom chief marketing officer, Dzene Makhwade-Seboni said the derby came a long way as it was now in the 11^th year noting that the event had grown and attracted a lot of attention.

She said this year there was a lot of development to improve the event. Some of the developments included new parking lot and also increased prize money. A total of P368 000 was for prize money. BOPA