There is plenty at stake at the last meeting of the East Cape season, on Friday at the Fairview track.
Nine races will bring the curtain down on the 2022/23 season, and it is difficult to predict the highlight of the meeting as there are many possibilities.
The two feature races are the Gold Cup and the Champion Juvenile Cup.
These are two very different races – one for the horses with plenty of stamina and the other for the speedy young horses.
The Gold Cup is a huge crowd favourite. The race starts in front of the grandstand and is run over the challenging distance of 3 200m.
If a local horse wins the Gold Cup, he or she will have a very good chance of being crowned as the East Cape Champion Stayer (long distance horse) of the season; so plenty to race for.
It is the same situation in the Champion Juvenile Cup, as the name of a local winner will be in contention to be announced as the best East Cape two-year-old of the season at the annual awards. The two-year-olds take each other on over 1 400m.
If this is not enough for racing fans to get excited about, there is the final throw of the dice to see who will be crowned the champion trainer in the province.
One would have thought at this stage of the season that the title had been decided, but it is definitely not the case.
Defending champion, Gavin Smith, is two winners in front of Alan Greeff when the meeting starts on Friday.
It doesn’t get much closer, and more exciting, than this.
The connections of both stables will be keeping score with every race, and Greeff will try to close the gap as soon as possible. This one is going right down to the wire!
Top jockey, Richard Fourie, will be on the fancied Greeff runners, and hoping to ride two winners at the very least.
Fourie is just two away from becoming only the second jockey to ride 100 or more Fairview winners in a season.
It was a delight to watch him in action at Fairview this season. He really produced some top rides.
