Australia's richest C2-C5 Series to be raced in South Australia
by David Aldred
Kevin & Kay Seymour partnering with HRSA and SAHRC to promote richest ever Career Front race series in Australia and celebrate birthday of GLOBE DERBY.
Globe Derby was foaled at Bathurst in 1910 and went on to found a champion dynasty in both Australia and New Zealand.
Harness Racing SA and Kevin & Kay Seymour have announced that they will partner to promote the richest ever “Career” front race in Australia to celebrate the 100 year birthday of Adelaide’s Globe Derby Park racetrack’s namesake Globe Derby.
The standardbred horse Globe Derby was foaled on 30 September 1910 at Bathurst (NSW) and went on to found a champion dynasty in both Australia and New Zealand. Outstanding horses stemming from the dynasty in the last couple of decades include Monkey King, Changeover, Just An Excuse, Yulestar, Iraklis, Il Vicolo, Bee Cee Bee, Chokin, Lightning Blue and Master Mood. In the late 60’s the committee of the South Australian Trotting Club honoured the great Globe Derby by naming the Adelaide track after him because the stallion was the most influential horse in Australian harness racing at the time.
“The club had the name picked out early in the piece and I can remember we referred to the track as Globe Derby even before the official opening in 1969,” 86-year-old Jim Hurley, one of the greats of SA harness racing said.
The Salisbury suburb Globe Derby, where the track is located is also named after the horse.
The $60,000 Kevin & Kay Seymour Globe Derby Birthday Cup will be raced for C2 – C5 class pacers in October, 2010 and HRSA, the South Australian Harness Racing Club (Globe Derby Park) and the Salisbury Council will form a working group to organise and promote the event.
In October, the Cup Series with total prize money estimated around $100,000 will be raced in Heats and Finals at Globe Derby.
Harness Racing SA expects to have a huge list of nominations for the $5,500 heats 16 October with the Kevin & Kay Seymour Globe Derby Birthday Cup Final of $60,000, the richest ever conducted for this class, to be raced on 23 October.
A Consolation Final of $8,000 will also be raced on 23 October.
Kevin Seymour AM and his wife Kay have sponsored a number of successful $20,000 Career Front Finals at Globe Derby Park in the last 12 months but this race is by far the biggest.
“It’s a major sponsorship for the industry and Harness Racing SA and all of the participants in South Australia are very grateful of the support Kevin and Kay are giving to our industry,” HRSA Chairman Grant Goodall said.
The Kevin & Kay Seymour Series races have been an outstanding success at Globe Derby Park with the latest edition, a $20,000 C2–C4 Final won by Mount Gambier trained Pure Jasper on Saturday night. HRSA will race another $20,000 Kevin & Kay Seymour Pace Final at Globe Derby Park on 12 June, 2010.
Conditions for the Kevin & Kay Seymour Globe Derby Birthday Cup are:
Kevin & Kay Seymour Globe Derby Birthday Cup (MS) of $60,000 C2 – C5 PBD/ 2230 metres
- Heats of $5,500 (CP) to be run at Globe Derby 16 October 2010
- Final of $60,000 (MP) to be run at Globe Derby 23 October 2010
- Consolation of $8,000 (CP) to be run at Globe Derby 23 October 2010
