THE focus will be on the fillies and mares this Friday when the Jockey Club Stakes is the main race at the Fairview Turf meeting in Greenbushes.
This race is run over the challenging distance of 2 000m and it is always a difficult race to win for any stable.
Last year, it was Santa Therese who produced an impressive run to win for the Alan Greeff-stable. It was a performance that played a huge role in Santa Therese being crowned as the champion three-year-old filly for that season.
Hopefully we will see another award-winning run this Friday in what should be a very good race.
Last year, the race was moved from the turf to the poly after rain made underfoot conditions on the grass unsafe.
The chances of this happening again are very slim and the turf track will be in fine nick to play its part in the contest.
The Speedster Stakes was also part of last year’s meeting but this time will be the main race on 9 September.
This month starts with four turf meetings but will return to the poly at the end of the month for the second leg of the Nelson Mandela Bay Racing Challenge.
What an exciting start to the challenge it was this past Friday, when the first leg over 1 200m was won by the Cliffie Miller stable.
The stable was experiencing a lean time going into the meeting. Before the meeting, Miller jokingly said he last won a race when Paul Kruger played hooker for the Diggers rugby side.
Boy, did the Miller stable hit back in a big way because it was the stablemates, Naval Secret and Greenlghttoheaven, that fought it out for first place in a nail-biting finish.
It was a great race to watch as the two Miller-runners had to dig deep to catch and pass Pleasedtomeetyou late in the race.
Only a nose separated the Miller-horses at the finish but now it gets even more interesting. Miller has to do some careful planning as huge bonuses are at stake.
A bonus of R250 000 will be paid to the winning connections of the horse that wins all three legs.
The second leg is over 1 400m and the last leg on October 21 is over 1 600m.
Naval Secret is the only horse that can win the bonus now but, if he misses out there, is also a consolation bonus of R50 000 for the best performing horse over the three legs.
It will be interesting to see if Miller will enter both his horses for the second leg but it is certainly very exciting times for the stable.
Fairview in September
2: Turf – Jockey Club Stakes
9: Turf – Speedster Stakes
16: Turf
23: Turf
30: Poly – Challenge Leg 2
