Ormarins King’s Plate 2026: The Real Prince Delivers a Commanding Victory
On Saturday, 10 January 2026, over the demanding mile at Kenilworth, The Real Prince claimed a decisive victory in the Ormarins King’s Plate, one of the flagship races of the South African racing calendar. It was a performance as impressive visually as it was objectively validated by tracking data, now fully integrated into race coverage at Hollywoodbets racecourses for several years.
Ridden with patience and precision by Craig Zackey, the winner settled in mid-pack through the early stages before producing a decisive acceleration turning for home. Between the 600 m and 400 m markers, The Real Prince recorded the fastest sectional of the race in 11.15 seconds, before sustaining his run all the way to the finish.
The key figures underline the quality of the performance:
These insights are made possible by the McLloyd tracking system, deployed across Hollywoodbets racecourses since 2022, delivering live data at 10 Hz, with now an archive of more than 5,000 races, and access through Spectator, the dedicated platform for race visualisation and performance analysis. (complete data set available here)
Behind the winner, Questioning and See It Again completed the podium in extremely close proximity, highlighting the depth and competitiveness of this outstanding 2026 edition.
South Africa: A Major Racing Nation on the International Stage
This victory forms part of a broader trend. South Africa has firmly established itself as a leading racing nation, as demonstrated in recent years by horses such as Isivunguvungu and One Stripe, both of whom have performed with distinction on major international stages.
This growing international recognition is supported by sustained structural investment, as highlighted by Dermot O’Connell, Betting Operations Manager at Hollywoodbets:
“Hollywoodbets, as the leading bookmaker in South Africa, has invested significantly in the local racing industry over the past three years, ensuring the survival of two major racing centres. This has included the acquisition of four racecourses and more than 200 thoroughbreds.
Our ambition is to elevate the profile of South African racing to match that of other leading international jurisdictions. To this end, we entered into a partnership with McLloyd to provide racegoers with accurate and reliable sectional timing across all races at our racecourses.
The data has been integrated into an internal graphical software platform, allowing precise visualisation of each horse’s progress, real-time margins and intermediate sectionals. We are extremely grateful for the support provided by the McLloyd team over the past two and a half years and are confident in their continued partnership going forward.”