ANOTHER fantastic month of horse racing in Nelson Mandela Bay starts on a speedy note on Friday.
The main event at the Fairview track in Greenbushes will be the R200 000 Cradock Place Stakes.
This is a race steeped in history and has been won by some of the biggest East Cape equine stars like Hear The Drums, Copper Parade and more recently, Pedra.
The race is over 1 200m and will be contested by top sprinters. It should be a cracking race!
Friday’s meeting will be the first of five in October at Fairview. The big one is the running of the Algoa Cup on the 25th but there is also a lot of excitement around the last leg of the Poly Challenge on the 18th.
The R175 000 third and last leg of the Challenge will be run over 1 600m. We could see history being made because there is a horse with a good chance of winning the triple crown for the first time.
Since the start of the Challenge in 2016 no horse has been able to win all three legs to secure the bonus of R250 000 for his connections.
This past Friday the five-year-old gelding King Regent showed he has the ability to go all the way.
He won the first leg over 1 200m in August and produced a breathtaking finish to win Friday’s second leg over 1 400m.
King Regent was slow out of the gates from a wide draw. He sat at the back of the field before he absolutely flew home down the short straight under jockey Denis Schwarz.
It is not going to be easy to clinch that bonus and King Regent has never won over 1 600m. The manner in which he won the second leg will give his Western Cape trainer Glen Kotzen a lot of confidence to clear the final hurdle.
It is an intense but exciting time for the Kotzen stable who will want to make sure King Regent stays in top condition for the upcoming crucial race.
King Regent is a Cape Town horse, owned by Martin Wickens and Gisela Burge, and huge support for the bonus attempt will be arriving in the Bay on the 18th.
Although the local stables will again try to stop King Regent, there will also be tremendous support for him from the expected big crowd on the day to shout him home to make history.
The Jacques Strydom-trained Gogetthesheriff came closest to that bonus in the very first year of the Challenge.
After winning the first two legs he just missed the bonus, finishing half-a-length behind the winner in third place.
Even the opposition was shouting for Gohetthesheriff in that thrilling finish and King Regent will no doubt have all the backing.
Fairview in October
4: Turf – Cradock Place Stakes
11: Turf
15: Turf
18: Poly Challenge Leg 3
25: Turf – Algoa Cup
