The highly popular annual East Cape Poly Challenge will start a hectic period for horse racing in Nelson Mandela Bay on Friday.
This will be the first of four meetings taking place in the space of just 11 days.
Usually, it is only one meeting a week at the Fairview track in Greenbushes. The extra meetings will be a huge challenge for all the stables, to make sure they are ready to produce their best.
After the closing of the Arlington track the Poly was installed in 2013, as a second track at Fairview. It soon became a popular surface, and in 2016 the Poly Challenge was introduced.
The Challenge has grown in stature and popularity, and racing fans have witnessed some spectacular races.
There is no doubt the Poly Challenge will again be fiercely contested. No horse has been able to secure the huge bonus for his connections by winning all three legs.
The Fairview trainers have done their homework and will try once again to pocket that bonus.
It is obviously very difficult for one horse to win those three races over the different distances of 1 200m, 1 400m and 1 600m.
These three races take place in the period of two months, which means it requires a special effort from the trainers to keep their top Poly horses performing at their best over that period.
There is also a consolation bonus to aim for if we don’t see a horse winning all three legs. That will go to the best performing horse over the three legs.
The start of the Poly Challenge will be exciting, but that is not all to look forward to in the coming weeks.
On Tuesday there will be another Poly meeting, and on Friday the 30th the action returns to the Turf track. The Poly comes into play again with a meeting on September 2.
The feature race on the 30th is the R150 000 Champion Juvenile Cup.
This is the third and last leg of the East Cape Challenge for fillies and mares. The bonus can’t be won after Pineapplemintgreen won this first leg, the East Cape Breeders Stakes, and Rainbow Lorikeet won the Paddock Stakes.
Pineapplemintgreen and Rainbow Lorikeet are both Cape Town-based horses that came to Fairview to grab the silverware.
The locals are working hard to make sure that they at least win the final leg, but again there is huge interest from the Western Cape.
Five Cape Town stables have nominated horses to run in the Champion Juvenile Cup.
It will be interesting to see which of those horses will indeed make the trip to Fairview when the final field is revealed next week.
