Great Derby Day!
WOULDN'T it be nice if we could have the huge crowd that attended last Sunday's Recall East Cape Derby back for racing at Fairview today?
It will be very quiet today compared to Sunday's record crowd. What a day it was! Derby Day looks like becoming one of the city's really huge events.
This year the marketing campaign was top class. The big drawcard was PE's first-ever prawn festival. Hopefully for the racing industry most of the thousands that pitched up for the prawns only will be back for the racing sometime soon.
The weather wasn't great on Sunday but still the organisers were blown away by the response. Although caught a bit off guard by the huge crowd, they must be congratulated with a wonderful weekend of racing.
The potential is there to make the Derby even bigger. I hope racing operator Phumelela takes up the challenge.
The other big annual raceday in Port Elizabeth is the Algoa Cup. Make a note of the date – October 26 – and hopefully it is a follow-up on a great Derby Day.
As was expected, the Cape Town raiders dominated the Derby once again. They took the first five places with Desert Swirl a deserving winner.
It must be disheartening for local owners and trainers that they are struggling to produce a Derby winner. It will certainly take some planning, but let's hope we see one in the Algoa Cup.
Before we get to the Algoa Cup racing fans countrywide will be preparing for the Vodacom Durban July which is not so far off. The KwaZulu-Natal Champions Season is starting now, with the July the highlight.
Hopefully, the best of the Eastern Cape, the likes of Copper Parade and Blaze of Fire, will be in action sometime during the Champions Season.
After all the excitement of the Derby the local racing fraternity heard the sad news on Monday that they lost one of their darlings, Carol Janse van Rensburg, who lost her battle with cancer.
She was a stalwart in the industry, working for the National Horseracing Authority and the Racing Association for many years.
Punters' Pal tips for Fairview:
PA (R192)
4/3-9/1-2/6-7-8/3-6-10-16/2-3-4-15/1
PICK6 (R2160)
1-3-5-6-9/1-2-5/6-7-8/3-6-10-16/2-3-4-15/ 1-3-10
- Punters' Pal
