Henk Steenkamp
Champion jockey Richard Fourie is closing in fast on his own record for the most winners in an East Cape season.
Fourie has good winning chances for the Alan Greeff stable at Friday’s Fairview Polytrack meeting, which could see him pass last season’s record mark.
This season Fourie has already rode 116 winners at Fairview. He is only three behind his record.
With more than two months of the season still left, Fourie might even reach an incredible 150 Fairview winners.
As usual he has a nice card of rides for Greeff (Winter Emeralds scratched in race 6) and can get to the new record on Friday.
Fourie could get off to a winning start as the first timer Wishes And Dreams is the odds-on favourite to win the first race.
Wishes And Dreams is another Canford Cliffs filly who can be successful for the Ridgemont team and the Greeff-Fourie combination.
In January the three-year-old Canford Cliffs filly Baie Mooi made an impressive winning debut.
On Friday she is drawn widest of all in a handicap, but is still priced up as the odds-on favourite to win the fourth race with Fourie aboard.
Heemstede relocated from Cape Town and nearly made it a winning Fairview debut on the turf, just missing out from a wide draw over 1900m on the turf.
The three-year-old gelding is back over the same distance in race six, trying the poly this time from pole position.
Henry S Hedge (Juan Nel) and the filly Twilight Bay (Gavin Smith) should challenge, but Heemstede is another odds-on favourite expected to win for the Greeff-Fourie combination.
Sharapova is also a huge runner with Fourie in the saddle in the eighth and last race, a Classified Stakes over 1300m.
The five-year-old Querari mare has been very consistent recently and was a bit unlucky not to have won last Friday over 1200m.
The last race at a Fairview meeting is usually a tricky affair, but Sharapova could close the day for Greeff and Fourie in style and could even be the horse that brings up another Fourie record.
Trainer Gavin Smith is just three winners away from reaching 100 in an East Cape season yet again.
His stable will be competitive throughout the day, with Supreme Judge a very big runner in the second race.
Supreme Judge is drawn eight out of eight but jockey Craig Zackey should be able to steer him to victory.
The first race is off at 12:30 – as always, let’s give it a go!