HARARE - South African thoroughbred Emperor Augustus has been tipped to do well at next month’s Castle Tankard race at Borrowdale Park.

Jack Milner, a renowned SA-based tipster, who was in the country yesterday believes  they will do well at the May 4 race.

Emperor Augustus out of Kahal, who will be ridden by Karl Zechner, is among the 20 horses that were named at the final acceptance ceremony on Tuesday.

“I’m actually gonna go for a horse called Emperor Augustus. I think he is very well weighted, I don’t know if he is gonna last the distance but he is nicely weighted,” Milner told the Daily News yesterday.

“He could be a quite good price for punters. Karl Zechner is a good rider of well weighted horses.”

This season the breed has participated in 15 races in various tracks in South Africa and has won three events and has been placed nine times.

On the local front, Milner tips Captain’s Tiger and last year’s runners-up at the same race Winter’s Night to be top contenders.

“I don’t know much about the Zimbabwean horses but after having spoken to Kirk Swansong, I know he thinks very highly of Captain’s Tiger,” he said.

“It does have top weight and Sherman Brown is a very good jockey.

“The other one is Winters Night, who has won the race before and was second last year.

“Of the locals these two horses have shown a lot of class and they have got the ability to win the race. Hopefully they should be up there.”

The Castle Tankard, which is the oldest sponsored horse race in Africa is in its 51st year and has grown from strength to strength.

Last year, there were 13 horses that took part in the featured race that was won by South Africa’s Code Rock, trained by Alyson Wright.   

“It’s probably the best field the race has ever had for probably 20 years.

“This is the first time since the 90s when the field has had 20 horses,” Milner said of the line up for this year’s race.

“There five or six horses from South Africa and some of them are very good horses that have been running in our big feature races.

“I think they are going to add a lot of colour to the event. We will also have some jockeys from South Africa who are coming join the local guys and I think overall it’s going to be a spectacular event.”