WHAT a five-star day for Five Star Racing!
This past Friday’s meeting at the Fairview racetrack in Greenbushes turned out to be an unforgettable one for trainer, Emmanuel Kaknis, and the Kaknis-owned Five Star Racing.
It was the first time that the Kaknis stable won one of the feature races in the Eastern Cape.
The four-year-old filly, Symbol of Love, owned by Five Star Racing, stormed home to win the R175 000 Glendore Sprint over 1 000m for the Kaknis family.
For some reason, a big win eluded the stable for a while now, but this one was a really sweet victory.
What made the win even more remarkable was that the filly fly jumped badly at the start, but jockey Jason Gates somehow recovered and Symbol of Love finished strongly to win the race on the Polytrack.
The trainer bought Symbol of Love for just R15 000 in 2023. She has now won 6 races from 32 career starts for total prize money of R465 625 – a very shrewd buy indeed.
There are six Fairview meetings remaining in the year. They will all be on the fast-running poly surface while the grass track is undergoing its annual treatment.
The next grass meeting will only be on 3 January, but this track is already looking awesome after the recent rains which was just the right medicine.
The R94 000 Guineas Plate for three-year-olds over 1600m should be a very interesting race at this coming Friday’s meeting.
Some top three-year-olds, including the highly rated My Best Shot trained by Alan Greeff, will be in action.
It is good to see that Fairview trainer, Kelly Mitchley, will be contesting two races at Saturday’s Summer Cup meeting at Turffontein in Johannesburg.
Passchendaele won the November Stakes on the poly recently for the Mitchley yard and she will contest the R300 000 Carry On Stakes.
Mitchley has retained the services of local jockey, Sandile Khathi, to ride Passchendaele. It is great for Khathi that he will be part of one of the country’s biggest race days.
The same goes for Eldin Webber who will be riding the Mitchley-trained Woman’s World in the R300 000 Racehorse Owners Association Stayers. We wish them the best of luck!
The Greeff stable is also looking forward to travelling to Cape Town with the East Cape champion filly, Splicethemainbrace. She has been entered to run in the R1.25 million Cape Fillies Guineas at Kenilworth on 7 December.
Splicethemainbrace has won seven of her eight races and is the only out-of-town entry to take on the Cape Town fillies.
Some top Western Cape stables will be visiting Fairview next month with runners who will be giving the poly surface a go. It was feared that the visitors wouldn’t be keen to contest the Fairview meetings in the holiday season while racing is only on the poly, but they would certainly add value and excitement to the local racing.
