SOMEONE found the Founders Trophy.
This horse race returns to the Fairview Polytrack as the main event of Friday’s meeting in Greenbushes.
Last season, the Founders Trophy went missing, as the race fell away in a revised racing programme due to COVID-19.
Racegoers will be happy to see its return, as it has always been a race that featured the best horses in the province over the distance of 1 600m.
Friday’s race is another strong-looking one and the winner’s name will join an impressive list of previous winners.
The roll of honour includes some of the Fairview faithful favourites like Hurricane Silver, Day of the Piper, Youth Club, Jet Explorer, Silent Partner and Blaze of Fire.
The victory of Blaze of Fire in 2012 was one of the most memorable in the long history of the race.
Blaze of Fire led most of the way to beat very strong opposition in a sensational victory for the stable of trainer, Yvette Bremner.
This race was run at the Arlington track, which is not in use anymore and in the saddle on that day a decade ago was a very young apprentice jockey at the time – Teaque Gould.
It was a very good ride by Gould, as he kept a cool head to hang on to the lead while the other horses and riders were flying in their attempt to catch him before the line.
In the end it was a very close victory for Blaze of Fire who was also crowned the East Cape Horse of the Year in 2013.
Gould is still Fairview-based where he is a familiar figure in the early mornings, where he does work riding at various stables.
He also did his fair bit of travelling this year to ride in Zimbabwe and his hard work paid off. Gould was crowned as Zimbabwe’s champion jockey for the past season. Let’s hope he gets the opportunities at Fairview to also make a huge impact at home on the rest of the local season.
Another popular jockey, Louis Mxothwa, Cape Town-based these days, is leading the very competitive race for the East Cape jockey championship.
He rode a double at the last Fairview meeting on a day the Gavin Smith-stable again dominated proceedings.
Smith saddled a treble and he is now set to reach his first milestone of 50 winners for the season very soon.
One of his star horses, Safari Blue, will travel to compete in the unique Grand Heritage race at the Vaal track on Saturday.
This is the only race in South Africa with more than 20 runners in the field (28) and it is run over the odd distance of 1 475m.
