“Gold Circle sent a team to accompany Coastal Horse Care Unit to the Harry Gwala Municipal District over the weekend of the 24th to 26th February. The areas that were visited during this clinic were. Kokstad , Matatiele and Umzinkhulu. More than 300 horses were seen during this visit.”
For more information on the Coastal Horse Care Unit click here – https://www.youtube.com/@coastalhorsecareunit3279/playlists
In honour of Tata Madiba, Gold Circle in collaboration with the Makatini Foundation and the Aurora Medical Group, hosted a fulfilled fun-filled day of activities for underprivileged children from various homes at the Summerveld Training Centre.
In honour of Tata Madiba, Gold Circle in collaboration with the Makatini Foundation and the Aurora Medical Group, hosted a fulfilled fun-filled day of activities for underprivileged children from various homes at the Summerveld Training Centre.
Gold Circle, Track and Ball Gaming, TabGold sponsored Reach for a dream golf day today the 09 September 2021, Reach For A Dream seeks to alleviate the strain that life-threatening illnesses place on sick children and their families by providing these dreamers with the opportunity to believe in their greatest wish. The Foundation has been providing dreams to children all around the country for 33 years in counting. These young children are under extreme pressure to deal with these medical issues and are in desperate need of encouragement. In addition, Reach For A Dream offers the child a magical moment to regain their childhood that is being lost to an illness.
The vision is to grow the Foundation to enable us to continue giving hope to children fighting critical illnesses. The Foundation hosts several national projects throughout the year to engage with the brave dreamers and wonderful donors.
The staff outreach, held in the true essence of Ubuntu, was an extension of Mandela Month initiatives which were delayed due to last month’s civil unrest.
Gold Circle today donated grocery hampers to those of their part-time staff whose work schedule has been effected by the pandemic.
Their schedules were effected by the lack of spectators at race meetings but they have not been forgotten and Gold Circle donated 200 grocery hampers to help their families during these tough economic times.
Hollywoodbets have extended their original R10 million three-year sponsorship of Gold Circle by a further R1.5 million per year with the announcement of some innovative changes that will come into effect on October 1, 2019.
Gold Circle and Hollywood bets will be in a R1 million joint partnership, each contributing R500k towards rewarding the grooms of winning horses with R1000 for every winner at KZN race meetings.
Tokens to the value of R1000 will be presented to the winning groom of every race in KZN. This is in addition to the 1% of stake money that the grooms already receive.
“Getting involved in joint CSI projects was always high on the agenda when Gold Circle and Hollywoodbets first met regarding sponsorship initiatives,” said Gold Circle’s Senior Marketing and Events Manager, Stephen Marshall. “This additional grooms’ incentive demonstrates the commitment of both parties to all stakeholders in the horse racing industry. We recognise the critical and integral role that grooms play and we are always looking at ways to illustrate that recognition. Going forward, grooms’ names will also be included in the official race card.”
Hollywoodbets Brand and Communications Manager, Devin Heffer, added; “Hollywoodbets is proud to be partnering with Gold Circle on the grooms initiative. Rewarding the winning groom with R1000 for every race at Hollywoodbets Greyville and Hollywoodbets Scottsville is important to us as a brand, and we relish the opportunity to play a tangible part in the empowering of this important sector of horse racing in KZN.”
In a further initiative, which will add colour and make horseracing more fun and attractive to a younger audience, Hollywoodbets will sponsor colour-coded saddles cloths, each saddlecloth number corresponding to a specific colour. Recently, this only applied to the last race on the card, but from October 1, it will apply to all races in KZN, excluding certain sponsored race days.
“Horse racing is steeped in tradition. However, respect for tradition should not be a barrier to innovation and stimulation. We believe that each small innovation will refresh our product and will go some way in differentiating the KZN offering from horse racing in other parts of the country – which in turn, will hopefully increase the interest, participation and betting on our product,” said Marshall. “The Gold Circle and Hollywoodbets marketing teams will continue to collaborate and introduce new initiatives wherever we can to improve the customer experience on course and on TV.”
“This practice currently exists in the USA and South America,” said Heffer. “It is an initiative that allows people who may not follow form, to possibly follow their favourite number, or favourite colour. The consistency with this is that the numbers and colours will always be the same. For example, Number 1 will always be red with a white number. Number 7 will always be orange with a black seven, etc.”
“Our goal will be to make these colours as visible and informative as possible, and to simplify the sport of horse racing to the wider viewing public,” said Heffer.
All these innovations will come into effect on Tuesday, October 1.
After launching their “Best Dressed Groom” campaign during the Cape Summer Season, Jonsson Workwear have committed to extending this initiative to Champions Season and will reward the best dressed groom of each race in KwaZulu Natal from 4 April to 31 July with a R500 Jonsson Workwear voucher.
“Our aim is to reward grooms and encourage them to take pride in how they dress and the work that they do. We believe when you feel good at work, you perform at your best”, said Nick Jonsson, CEO of Jonsson Workwear.
Covering 35 KZN race meetings over the period, this campaign will inject approximately R150 000 into uplifting grooms in the province. In addition to this, Jonsson Workwear will also reward the trainer, jockey and groom of the horse that wins the 2021 Jonsson Workwear Garden Province Stakes, run on Vodacom Durban July day, with a R5000 voucher each.
“We are very fortunate to have passionate stakeholders like Mr. Jonsson who look at new ways to support the industry during these very challenging times”, said Steve Marshall, Events & Marketing Executive of Gold Circle. “We will be announcing each winner on course where they will be presented with their R500 voucher and pictures will be published of all the winning grooms on Gold Circle’s social media platforms.
