Racing fans will have to wait a little bit longer for the much-anticipated meeting, which includes three feature races.
This meeting was supposed to take place on the Fairview Turf track in Greenbushes this coming Friday but has been moved to the Polytrack.
This past Friday was the first meeting in a long time on the Turf track, but more work is still required to make sure the grass is in top condition to host a meeting.
The Lakeside Handicap, Fairview Merchants and Fairview Mile will now all be run at the meeting on the 30th – hopefully on the Turf track.
That meeting will be the start of a massive weekend of racing in South Africa, because on Saturday the 31st, the Cape Town Met takes place at Kenilworth.
The action at Fairview doesn’t stop, though, and this coming Friday’s Poly meeting is an exciting one for the apprentice jockeys. They will compete in a Classified Stakes in which only apprentices will be allowed to ride.
The professionals will get a chance to take a breather with this race, but they always follow the progress of the apprentices with huge interest and won’t miss the action.
The apprentice jockeys have been doing really well this season at Fairview. Bavish Soodoo is in great form and is leading in two East Cape title races: Champion local jockey and Champion apprentice.
The Breeders’ Guineas Plate over 1400m remains part of Friday’s meeting.
This race features some classy three-year-old fillies, and it could now well be the highlight of the afternoon.
Last Friday, the Lady’s Bracelet race for fillies and mares over 1600m was the main event, and Splicethemainbrace ran a brilliant race.
The smallish four-year-old filly carried a hefty 62kg under jockey Calvin Habib to win easily for the Greeff yard.
At that meeting, the teaching corps of Dr Viljoen Primary combined a development session with a day at the races.
It made for a festive atmosphere at the scenic venue – it should be more of the same on Friday. Entry is free.
