AFTER the challenges of COVID-19 the previous two years, 2022 was a really good one for horse racing in Nelson Mandela Bay.
There were many highlights but one name that stands out is that of the East Cape champion trainer, Gavin Smith.
What a year it was for the Smith-stable. Smith won the trainer’s title for the first time since 2013 and his star, Global Drummer, was named as the Horse of the Year.
The biggest highlight of them all for the Smith-team was Algoa Cup Day in October.
Smith won an incredible seven races on the day to equal the record at the Fairview track.
Another exciting highlight was the emergence of talented young horses from the Fairview-yards.
It started back in January, when the Alan Greeff-trained Cliff Top won the Summer Juvenile Stakes in Cape Town.
This win was one the East Cape was particularly proud of as it is never easy for a Fairview horse to take on the best elsewhere in the country and win.
The rivalry between the Eastern and Western Cape in the big Fairview races always makes for top-class racing.
In the first half of the year, the visitors were mostly too strong but in the second half the Fairview stables won their fair share of the prize money.
Western Cape conditioner, Glen Kotzen, picked up the silverware in the two biggest races.
He won the EC Derby in May with Chollima and the Algoa Cup with Han Solo. Han Solo just got the better of Jaeger Moon otherwise.
It was eight winners on that memorable day for the Smith-stable.
The Derby and Algoa Cup meetings were real festive occasions. It was great to see the crowds return to Fairview on these days and many of the other meetings were also well attended.
Fairview is in the privileged position of having two tracks – the turf and the poly.
The synthetic Polytrack saved many meetings when the turf track was unsuitable to race on and we also saw the return of the popular EC Poly Challenge.
The Challenge produced three nail-biting races and in the end the Cliffie Miller-trained Naval Secret picked up the consolation bonus of R50 000. Naval Secret was the best performing horse over the three legs of the Challenge.
The Poly had to work very hard this year and the good news is that this track will get a facelift in the near future.
The last two Fairview meetings of 2022 will be on the Poly over the next two Fridays.
The first Fairview meeting of 2023 will be on January 6 on the turf.
