IT is that time of the year when the Fairview race track is the place to be on a Friday afternoon in Gqeberha.
Last Friday was a really festive affair, when a good crowd attended the meeting, which was also a charity fund-raiser for the South African Air Force Association.
The Bold Silvano Room was packed with racegoers who enjoyed socialising, award-winning catering and some very fine racing.
We are regularly seeing some wonderful finishes in the feature races at Fairview and last Friday’s November Stakes turned into yet another thriller.
All eyes were on the reigning East Cape horse of the year, Global Drummer, and in the short straight on the Polytrack it seemed as though he and Greenlighttoheaven were fighting it out for first place.
Bold Resolve turned it into a three-way fight late in the race and with Charles Ndlovu in the saddle, sneaked through on the outside to take first prize.
Although champion trainer, Gavin Smith, had to settle for second place (with Golden Drummer) in the main event, he had yet another fine outing by saddling a treble on the day.
A third of the current East Cape season is nearly a thing of the past and at this rate it is going to be difficult to deny Smith another trainer’s title.
Alan Greeff is still very much in the running though, with 35 winners, just seven behind Smith. Sharon Kotzen (21 winners) is also enjoying a fine season.
Greg Cheyne has been the champion jockey since 2017, but is not involved anymore.
This means that, for the first time in many years, the jockey title race is wide open.
Louis Mxothwa (24 winners) is leading but S’manga Khumalo (21) and Richard Fourie (19) are not far behind.
The trend of nail-biting finishes in the top Fairview races should continue this coming Friday in the Glendore Sprint.
It looks like a really competitive, and very fast, race over 1 000m.
Another race on the card of eight races could very well steal the spotlight from the Glendore Sprint.
That is a Pinnacle Stakes over 2 200m where some of the best horses in the province will be involved.
Elsewhere in the country, there are some big meetings coming up.
On Saturday, the Summer Cup meeting takes place in Johannesburg.
Then, on December 3, the running of the Fillies Guineas will be the highlight of the Cape Town meeting.
Friday’s Fairview meeting starts at 12:40. The Glendore Sprint is the seventh race, off at 16:10.
Fairview dates
25 November
2 December
16 December
23 December
30 December
