The punters will be ready to fight back at the Fairview racetrack in Greenbushes on Friday.
Last Friday was a very tough day for the punters. They will be hoping to win some money back, and more, in the upcoming meeting of eight races.
Not a single totalisator favourite won at the last meeting. With plenty of upset victories in the eight races, it was no surprise that there was not one winning ticket in the popular Pick Six bet at the end of the day.
On days like this, when the favourite horses of the punting public struggle, there is usually lots of drama. This was certainly the case last Friday.
It is always good to see the winning connections celebrate a victory though, especially an unexpected one, and there was plenty of that. Usually it is the owners, trainers and stable employees who celebrate along with the successful punters, but this meeting started with a rather strange celebration.
The winner of the first race, Lady Camper, led the celebrations – yes, the horse herself was celebrating. The filly was a surprise winner of her first race at Fairview.
Previously she had five runs in Cape Town; the last was in May last year, without earning any prize money. Lady Camper was so chuffed with her win she didn’t want to stop running. She went a second time around the course on a celebratory run!
Eventually she got thirsty and tired, and had to stop for a drink.
Lady Camper will probably take a good few weeks to recover fully from her big day, but trainer, Duncan McKenzie, was delighted with the win. He owns the filly in partnership with Robin Strydom. Strydom and McKenzie missed out on the customary winning pictures in the winners’ enclosure as Lady Camper wasn’t interested in that.
Trainer Zietsman Oosthuizen has a small stable, but this was a huge day for the big man. Before this past Friday it had been three months since he last had a winner.
That changed in a huge way when the speedy filly, Tipsy Tina, won the fifth race, and Alado’s Pride the seventh. Both winners were ridden by apprentice jockey, Trent Mayhew, and a delighted Oosthuizen had no problem celebrating the victories by carrying the much lighter jockey around for some memorable photographs.
“It has been a long three months (since the last win) but this is great,” said Oosthuizen, while he sang the praises of Mayhew and the horses.
Hopefully for the punters it will be their turn to celebrate on Friday, and don’t forget there is also a meeting on Tuesday the 13th.
