The feature-race programme contains three new events – the R125,000 Lightning Stakes and the R125,000 Summer Speedsters for females, both over 1000m on Thursday 28 January, and the R125,000 Woodland Sprint for fillies and mares over 1200m on Tuesday 5 March.

The Woodland Sprint now forms the female equivalent to the R125,000 Autumn Sand Sprint over 1200m on the same day. The Autumn Sand Sprint was run over 1000m this year, but the distance will increase to 1200m going forward as a result of the introduction of the Lightning Stakes.

The R200,000 Highveld Sand Challenge over 1600m on Tuesday 20 April has been upgraded to Listed status from next year, while the R125,000 Queen of the Sand for females over 1600m on the same day is now a conditions event after being run on handicap terms previously.

The feature-race programme for the Vaal sand now comprises 16 events, beginning with the Lightning Stakes and Summer Speedsters in January and culminating in the R600,000 Emerald Cup, Africa’s richest race on sand, in September.

"We’ve built on the success of the recent Emerald Cup race meeting and the addition of three races and some fine tuning elsewhere in 2010 makes for an attractive and balanced feature season non sand that spans eight months," said Phumelela’s Horseracing Executive Patrick Davis.

"I am also pleased to report that the replacement of the sand racing surface at the Vaal has started and will be ready for the next meeting there on 3 November," he added.