RACING SOUTH AFRICA'S 2010 KZN CHARITY TURF CHALLENGE JJ The Jet Plane destroyed his opposition in the Gr.1 Mercury Sprint and gave his supporters a 15 point lift going into the final stages of the Charity Turf Challenge. In so doing he took his competition total to 45 points. ‘JJ’ was simply in a different league as Pierre Strydom eased the 5yr old gelding onto the stand side rail soon after the jump and then asserted under a hands ride to win by 5.5 lengths in a time of 67.45 seconds. Wild Card entry, Gaultier, returned to his best form to earn 12 points and Bush Pirate did his best work late to finish third and take home 10 points. Top Mark and Tamarillo were the other point scorers over the last week, picking up 2 points each and with very little point scoring opportunities before Vodacom Durban July day, the competition will be decided on South Africa’s biggest race day. Brian Waterston gave up his hard-earned lead after Blue Tiger failed to deliver in the Mercury Sprint. Conversely, Trevor J Hughes, revealed as Tellytrack presenter and trainer, Paul Lafferty’s, brother-in-law was propelled into the number one spot with the victory of ‘JJ’ to go 9 points clear of Waterston. This is the first time that Trevor entered the competition and has four runners in the July, personally favouring Irish Flame to win. Tevor’s brother, Keith, is a major investor in Paul Lafferty’s stable and no doubt will be call on Trevor to partner some of the horses should be take home the first prize worth R100 000. “Barry” (Barry Nel) jumps into clear second spot and all have similar horses competing for the last of the bonus points offered in the Vodacom Durban July so it promises to be a nail-biting finale come 31 July! Next week we’ll give an in depth analysis of the likely contenders once the final fields have been declared. The Top 20 Leader Board is listed below. The full entry log can be found on the Racing South Africa website.   KZN 2010 CHARITY TURF CHALLENGE  by LEADER BOARD (18 July 2010) POSITION NAME (ENTRY) POINTS 1st T J Hughes  (1) 186 2nd Barry (6) 181 3rd “Brian Waterston (1) 177  4th Hotline (2) 172  5th J.P.  (6) 169 6th “Bogie” (7) 168   J.P. (4) 168   Bart Rice (5) 168   Shurlock (2) 168 10th Bogie (1) 167 11th Neil Andrews (13) 166 12th Club Tab 1  (4) 165   Club Tab 1  (14) 165 14th “Bogie” (2) 164 15th Dayalan Naidoo (1) 163   Neil Andrews (15) 163 17th Neil Andrews (14) 161   Garth Reich (1) 161  19th Dustine Wilken (7) 160   “Bogie”(8) 160   KZN 2010 CHARITY TURF CHALLENGE by LEADING HORSES (18 July 2010) NAME of HORSE POINTS JJ THE JET PLANE 45 POCKET POWER 32 BIG CITY LIFE 30 RUSHING WIND* 26 IRISH FLAME 25 BLUE TIGER 24 BOLD SILVANO 22 GIBRALTAR BLUE 22 ANCESTRAL FORE 20 MOROCCAN 20 BUSH PIRATE 17 TASSIE BELLE* 17 ORBISON 17 CAPTAIN’S GAL 15 IMPERIOUS STAR 15 JET TRAIL 15 GALILEO’S GALAXY 14 GAULTIER* 12 PREDESTINATION* 12 RIVER JETEZ 12 VAL DE RA 12 VERTICAL TAKEOFF 12 CASEY COOL 10 LIZARRE 10 TROPICAL EMPIRE 10 ASLAN 7 BRAGADACCIO* 7 FLYING TRISTRAM 7 HERE TO WIN 7 HAPPY VALLEY * 7 FORT PETERSBURG* 5 GOAT 5 IMPERIAL GESTURE 5 STRAWBERRY ICE 5 TALES OF BRAVERY* 5 FLIRTATION 5 SERVICE ACE 5 STAR EMPIRE* 4 STRAIGHT FORWARD 4 CAROL’S TRIUMPH* 2 COPPER PARADE* 2 EL JADIDA* 2 EQUIPARADA* 2 GRACIE JONES* 2 GRAFTON STREET* 2 HAPPY VALLEY* 2 HAWK’S EYE* 2 IWANNADANCE 2 JINZO* 2 LINK MAN* 2 LOVE IS IN THE AIR 2 MAHBOOBA* 2 NOCTURNAL AFFAIR 2 PRIVATE JET 2 TAMARILLO* 2 THANKS JOHN* 2 TOP MARK 2 VACHERIN* 2 WINNING LEAP* 2 ZANZAMAR* 2 * denotes Wild Card Two prizes were drawn live on Tellytrack on Sunday afternoon as part of Racing South Africa’s weekly random computer generated Spot Prize Draw. Betting World kindly donated two R500 betting vouchers and these were won by Kevin van Niekerk and K Hansray.