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Gold Circle<\/p>\n
Horseracing action in Durban on Saurday with Vodacom Durban July at Greyville is set to be a money-spinning holiday weekend for the city.<\/p>\n
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Durban is in the grip of a multibillion-rand fever as racing and rugby fans flock to the city ahead of what pro-mises to be a bumper weekend for business and holiday-|makers despite a less-than-perfect weather forecast. <\/p>\n
Racing group Gold Circle KZN chief executive officer Graham Hawkins said excitement ahead of the Durban July was steamier than usual. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis year\u2019s race seems to have captured the imagination of the public more than previous years. We are filled to capacity. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur market area, which includes the tents and marquees, has seen growth. The horses are ready, the track is ready, and we\u2019re ready. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll we need now is good weather,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The South African Weather Service has forecast light rain on Saturday evening with |temperatures peaking at 26 |degrees in the day. <\/p>\n
As truckloads of booze, catering equipment, food and furniture including mobile |toilets lifted on to the Greyville racecourse site by cranes, poured into the venue yesterday, Hawkins said the internationally famous race had spawned thousands of opportunities for local business this year. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect at least R100 million to change hands at the onsite totes, and you can double that number with all the |off-site totes. The economic value of this event, just on the day, runs into the hundreds-of-million of rand while the benefit to the province, I am told, runs into billions of rand. The spin-off for Durban companies cannot be underestimated,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
And, interest is up on the yearling sales at Duban\u2019s Suncoast Casino too, said Hawkins. \u201cWe expect at least 80 percent of them to be sold.\u201d <\/p>\n
Chief executive officer of the Sharks, Brian van Zyl, however, is a little more concerned about the weather for Friday night\u2019s clash between the Bulls and the Sharks despite a clear forecast. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt this stage we are expecting about 25 000 people at the game, but we are expecting a surge in ticket sales today.\u201d <\/p>\n
Airports Company of SA\u2019s Colin Naidoo said the Blue Bull flags were flying at King Shaka International Airport and race-goers were flocking through the entrance hall. <\/p>\n
Kulula.com chief executive officer Erik Venter said his company\u2019s aircraft were flying a record number of \u201cfashionistas, sports lovers and fun people to Durban\u201d. <\/p>\n
Durban\u2019s major hotels are almost full to capacity and occupancy numbers are up on last year. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are still some beds available, but Durban\u2019s major hotels and BBs are all fully booked,\u201d says Fedhasa\u2019s Gerhard Patzer. \u201cLast year, over this same weekend, our occupancy was over 80 percent and it looks as though we are nearer to 90 percent, this year.\u201d <\/p>\n
While Europa and Butcher Boys restaurants on Durban\u2019s popular Florida Road, were yet to see a flood of bookings, history has proven that a bumper weekend is in store. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t take bookings at Europa,\u201d said Ernest van Biljon, the manager, \u201cbut last year we were packed on and off the whole weekend, so let\u2019s hope it\u2019s the same this year.\u201d <\/p>\n
Butcher Boys\u2019 Natalie Hendricks said bookings looked reasonable for Friday night, but little for Saturday night. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur experience though is that we get inundated with walk-ins,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
And, the long arm of the law is on high alert ahead of the crowd-pulling events. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s no different from the 2010 World Cup or the climate change conference last year. Our plans are adapted for each situation. This is nothing new,\u201d said metro police vice-head, Steve Middleton. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who park illegally at any of these events will have their cars towed. And they mustn\u2019t say they are here to support Durban and we treat them so badly \u2013 they must know \u2013 we will act if they break the law,\u201d he warned. <\/p>\n
Middleton also urged punters to use the park-and-ride shuttles from the Durban drive-in site to get to the Greyville racecourse. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gold Circle Horseracing action in Durban on Saurday with Vodacom Durban July at Greyville is set to be a money-spinning holiday weekend for the city. Durban is in the grip of a multibillion-rand fever as racing and rugby fans flock to the city ahead of what pro-mises to be a bumper weekend for business and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-12172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}