Zebaldt Ngaruka
Racehorses Pee Jay and Katiti Komambo won the top honours at the Spring Cup competition held at Okahandja on Saturday.
The Spring Cup competition was organised by the Okahandja Racing to sustain horse owners in maintaining their horses.
Pee Jay, from the Burger Racing (BR) won the 2 400m, which was the main plate for the Thoroughbred horses. At the same time, Okahandja Racing’s (OR) Katiti Komambo emerged victor in the 1600m, which was the key race for Namibian-born horses known as Nambreds.
Pee Jay took home N$20 000 cash for winning the Thoroughbred key race, whereas Katiti Komambo pocketed N$10 000 in cash as Nambred winner.
Junius Racing’s decorated horse, Woodland Ridge, scooped the second position in the Import Open 2 400m race, leaving behind Equerry and Unbroken Promises in second and third places, respectively.
Boma challenged Katiti Komambo from Harambee Racing in second place, while Aminuis Racing’s Lady Diamond settled for third place in Nambred’s primary race.
In the juvenile competition, a young horse named White Nossob came first, Warm Black Night clinched second place, Velocity Junior came third, and Firefly took fourth place in the 800m sprint.
Justify triumphed in the 1000 m of the Nambred maiden category horse, while 1000 m of the Import maiden graduation plate was won by The Iron Duke from Aminius Racing.
The short distance Import A division went to Woodland Ridge, while Torix Night of Eamon Freygang won the Import D division category in the same distance.
Slim Shady of JR won the Nambred maiden (1400m) while OR Word in Hunison clinched the same category in the Thoroughbred horses.
WT Racing’s Crystal Maiden scooped the Import D 1600, whereas Life is Good from Tallismanus won the Nambred category. Competition organiser Otis Kotjipati said the event was successful and ended in a good atmosphere.
“Since we didn’t have sponsors, we are satisfied that we managed to pay all winners accordingly. We tried our best to put everything in place and produced a fair competition for the participants,” he said.
Kotjipati added that they only had one incident in the last race of the competition after one jockey got injured.
“That was a very unfortunate incident, but our emergency services responded promptly. The jockey, as we speak, is in stable condition,” he said.
Kotjipati, the president of Okahandja Racing, further applauded the horse racing fans for attending in large numbers.
“We are happy, and your support made the difference. Horse racing is our sport, and we must continue to embrace it throughout the year. With or without sponsors, let’s keep supporting this sport,” he added.