SportyStuffTV and SIS are delighted to announce that from Tuesday, April 4, SportyStuffTV will be broadcasting live horse racing from South Africa. Coverage will include racing from Durbanville, Fairview, Kenilworth, Turffontein and Vaal in a twelve-week transmission trial.
SportyStuffTV’s schedule will change to accommodate three South African race meetings per week on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings.
Alongside the South African racing, SportyStuffTV will also cover action from one of the United Kingdom’s premium greyhound tracks. Weekday greyhound racing will come live from race meetings at Oxford, Romford, Suffolk Downs, Hove and Harlow.
The addition of South African racing to SportyStuffTV’s expanding sports portfolio will increase the channel’s mid-week live action coverage by 40%.
Joining the SportyStuffTV broadcasting team via Skype will be widely respected race caller Rouvaun Smit as well as Tellytrack legend and popular podcaster Shaheen Shaw, who is looking forward to the action: ‘Let’s hit them hard, Sunshines!’.
Smit, who has called races at Royal Ascot and is known as Cape Racing’s ‘Golden Voice’ added: “South African horse racing offers the astute punter an eclectic cocktail of rich rewards and sizzling entertainment. History shows that we produce some of the greatest jockeys in the world, our trainers have proven themselves internationally and our racecourses are scenic and world-class. I look forward to assisting SportyStuffTV viewers with unravelling the form and providing insight into the horses and the humans.”
Conleth Byrne, Product Director for SIS commented: “This is a very positive step in terms of increasing our brand awareness as it represents the first stage in delivering premium horse racing content to free-to-air platforms for people to enjoy at home. It also further strengthens our relationship with SportyStuffTV and all of its major shareholders while expanding on our market-leading coverage of greyhound racing from the United Kingdom and Ireland with an additional three meetings taking us to a total of 22.”
Sporting Post’s editor Lance Benson said: “As South Africa’s leading horse racing and breeding news platform, the Sporting Post is privileged to provide collateral insight into our local racing for SportyStuffTV viewers. South African horse racing boasts a proud history dating back two centuries to the arrival of the British in the Cape and our product has enjoyed links over time to British racing through royalty, top horses and great jockeys of the ilk of our own British champion Michael Roberts. We have no doubt that SportyStuffTV viewers will enjoy the diversity and entertainment value of what is undoubtedly the greatest horse racing on the African continent.”
SportyStuffTV’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Kevan Moretti added: “This is a major milestone for SportyStuffTV and fantastic news for our viewers. For many years, South African racing has been very popular with United Kingdom and Irish audiences. We are delighted to be bringing it back to air. We are also very pleased to be working with SIS and South Africa’s prestigious Sporting Post to provide the very best data and editorial content in support of the racing for our viewers.”
