Horse racing fans in the Eastern Cape are enjoying a wonderful month but it is going to be even better next year.
May is traditionally an exciting month for racing in the province, with the East Cape Derby meeting being the highlight.
The Derby was run last Friday, a week after the last leg of the Poly Challenge took place. The Dahlia Plate, Milkwood Stakes and Fairview 1400 are the other big races scheduled for this month.
The good news is that plans are well under the way for feature racing in the province next year, something similar to the KwaZulu-Natal winter season that includes the Vodacom Durban July, and the Western Cape summer season that has the Cape Met as the highlight.
That will mean that next year, in April and May, the focus in South African racing will be on the action at the Fairview track in Greenbushes.
It looks as though the national racing programme will undergo some changes for next season and there could be a big surprise for racing fans in the Bay.
The talk is that the Algoa Cup race day, traditionally run at the end of October, will be moved to April to be part of the East Cape feature season.
This will make sure of a festival of racing in April and May, which will not only give racing in the province a major boost, but would also be good for the East Cape economy.
In that period, Fairview will be hosting the top races in the country and many out-of-province horses will probably make the trip to compete in Gqeberha.
The Derby this past Friday only had seven runners of which only one was from outside the Eastern Cape. This was hugely disappointing compared to previous years when there was lots of interest from the Western Cape.
It is COVID-19 times and the meetings are still behind closed doors but one expected more raiders at Fairview for the Derby.
A feature season at Fairview next year will make sure of a strong out of town presence and it will be huge incentive and challenge for the local stables to show their mettle against the best of the rest.
Let’s just hope that by then the COVID-19 situation has changed and that spectators are allowed at the track.
Last Friday, those who were allowed at Fairview got a taste of what the promotions manager, Karin le Roux, and her team, can do to make it a memorable event for everyone.
The Derby field might have been confined to only seven runners but that must take nothing away from a brilliant performance by the winner, the handsome colt, Jaeger Moon. This is a gutsy racehorse with a burning will to win and he is a very deserving winner of the Derby.
This Friday, the running of the Dahlia Plate is the highlight when some top two year-old fillies will be in action. Look out for the stars of the future in this one.
