No. 2024 ISSN 1023 / 6996
MONDAY 10th - THURSDAY 13th MARCH 2014
New Horizon. The seasoned seven–time winner Bwana Macube experiments with a mile on the Fairview polytrack on Monday
FAIRVIEW 1:15pm (Monday) p.3
TURFFONTEIN INNER 1:25pm (Tuesday) p.11
CLAIRWOOD 12:25pm (Wednesday) p.23
VAAL SAND 12:35pm (Thursday) p.30
MR80 HANDICAP at Fairview on Monday
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After a frustrating spate of lost meetings in Gauteng and KZN recently, Phumelela’s R40 million Fairview Polytrack is looking like a very astute investment right now.
onday’s well patronized eight race programme at the venue will attract plenty of interest and the day’s topliner looks wide open. Eastern Cape racing has grown in stature in recent years and when the first two races were run on the Polytrack on 25 October last year, it signalled the dawning of a whole new dimension to the second chance saloon status of the region.
No Lost Days
The track can handle heavy rain, so training days and racedays are not lost. The happy result of no loss of races and betting turnover and opportunities is happy punters
and owners. These two groups are after all the investors and the backbone of the game. And there is nothing worse than the bad PR and frustration that goes hand in hand with looking forward to something that just doesn’t happen. Buying a racing publication, putting in hours of study and then losing the meeting is a major negative for the punter. Not forgetting the owner, who docks up hard earned cash to keep horses who don’t run.
Quick Return
The Polytrack’s value was also shown very quickly with one of PE’s biggest meets of the year, the Gr3 Betting World Algoa Cup, also known as the PE July, being switched from turf to the Poly on 27 October, just two days
after the first two races were run! The meeting was thus saved and the immediate buy in was there from punters, owners and trainers. Monday’s field sizes will also bear testimony to this and the local trainers have commendably quickly adjusted to what was unknown territory to most of them under five months ago.
Safe Surface
Champion trainer Mike De Kock said on the opening of the track that the surface is notably safer for horse and rider. He assured his colleagues that there would be a significant reduction in horses breaking down. Logic
holds that horses that stay sound for long periods of time, or in some instances for longer periods of time, are able to exercise more often and hence will reach their required levels of fitness quicker. It follows that even some of the chronically unsound runners will show improvement. A bigger proportion of the throroughbred population will thus have the opportunity to potentially extend their careers.
Change Of Scenery
The ten horses that line up on Monday for the MR 80 Handicap to be run over a mile are a typically mixed bag of talented locals and ‘born
agains’ – retreads from other racing centres, looking for a second lease on life and a change of scenery. The seven time winning topweight Bwana Macube is one horse that fits the mould. He was despatched by his Ashburton trainer and his part owner Duncan Howells to his cousin Gavin Smith as an alternate strategy after losing his enthusiasm in KZN. Cont. p.2