The best two-year-olds will have the last say in the East Cape horse-racing season.
The current local season will come to a close with Friday’s meeting on the Fairview Turf track in Greenbushes.
Friday’s main event will be the Champion Juvenile Cup for the two-year-olds over 1400m.
The local two-year-old fillies have produced wonderful performances throughout the season, but the colts and geldings have been taking a backseat.
It is a huge opportunity for the colts and geldings to secure a season award with a good performance in the Champion Juvenile Cup.
Most of the other awards and titles are wrapped up by now, but Friday’s feature will have a huge say in which horse will be crowned as the Champion Two-year Old colt/gelding.
This is truly a race of champions. Previous winners include some of the biggest equine names in the Eastern Cape like Bold Silvano, Global Drummer and In A Rush.
There is a good chance that a Fairview filly from the Alan Greeff stable will pick up a national award this season.
Three Greeff-trained two-year-old fillies, Direct Hit, Anotherdanceforme and Golden Palm, have all been in great form. Direct Hit is the frontrunner to be crowned as the Champion Two-year-old filly at the Equus Awards (national awards) on August 14 in Durban.
Two important East Cape titles, Champion Owner and Champion Local Jockey, will only be decided on Friday.
Hollywood Racing can become the Champion Owner in the province for the first time. Hollywood will be R139.774 ahead in prize money of Peter Moor when Friday’s meeting starts.
Although he couldn’t ride in the last two months of the season due to a broken leg, Eldin Webber could still be crowned as the Champion Local Jockey.
He thought the injury had put paid to his title hopes, but Webber is still two wins ahead of Charles Ndlovu and three ahead of Sandile Khathi.
Although Friday’s meeting is the last for the province, there are still meetings elsewhere in the country till the South African season ends on the 31st.
The remaining big one is on Sunday in Durban when Greeff will saddle three runners to round up a wonderful season for him.
Golden Palm will contest the Douglas Whyte Stakes, Silva City the Debutante, and the five-year-old gelding Bournemouth will run in the Gold Cup.
Bournemouth is a strong candidate to be named as the East Cape champion over long distances for the season.
He won the Lakeside Handicap in January and the Glenlair Trophy in April. He ran second in the local Gold Cup when he had to carry a hefty 62kgs.
These performances were enough for Greeff to decide that Bournemouth is ready to travel to Durban to take on the best in the country. He will carry 58.5kgs in Durban.
The first Fairview meeting next season will be on Monday, August 4.
