Racing into a new future
Sports aficionados will be spoilt for choice this weekend with some potentially spectacular events whetting the appetite. The rugby Boks will face a stern test of their strength when they come up against the Welsh Dragons in their final end-of-year tour match on Saturday and coach Rassie Erasmus would love to see his men pull this one off.
It will not be easy as Wales will be in an uncompromising mood and seek to put the skids under the South Africans before their home support.
It will be instructive to see whether the Boks will be a force to be reckoned with for the bigger battles ahead at the World Cup in Japan next year.
On the football front, we also have the perennial derby between Soweto giants – Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates – locking horns in the Telkom Cup knockout semifinal in Durban.
League fare between these sides normally ends up disappointing affairs, but the fact that one must die will undoubtedly add that extra ingredient of intrigue and excitement into the melting pot.
But nearer home a greater burst of intensity will grip the Eastern Cape when the Berlin November traditional horse-racing takes off outside East London.
This event has fuelled the public’s imagination with the organisers putting together, what they perceive as the country’s biggest traditional horse-racing spectacular.
It is expected to draw a massive crowd with its mix of pure adrenaline pumping as young black jockeys push their mounts to the ultimate amid the glitz and glamour.
Horse-racing has for years been the domain of the white-owned stables and there have been hardly any black jockeys who take up this sport.
It takes a special skill to mount a horse and steer it in one direction at breakneck speed and this fed the belief black riders do not have it.
The Berlin November puts an end to that racist perception.
Young riders at the event are a marvel to watch and hopefully it will not be long until they get their due recognition by one of the big stables in this country.
True it is a one-off event, but it has as much entertainment as you may well find at feature events like the Durban July, the Cape Met and the Gold Cup.
Calls to bring the horse-racing industry to this region have not received much attention. Having tracks of the standard of Greyville, Flamingo Park, Fairview, Turffontein or Kenilworth would cost millions. But the Berlin November’s attraction shows that perhaps in the not-sodistant future we may finally have a racecourse in our own backyard. Here’s hoping.
But nearer home a greater burst of intensity will grip the Eastern Cape when the Berlin November takes off