It’s Kenilworth, not PE, for today’s horse racing

PORT Elizabeth horse racing fans will walk around today with a feeling that something is not quite right.

It is indeed a strange situation that it is Friday but there will be no action at the Fairview race track.

The regular Friday Port Elizabeth meeting has made way for the weekend festival at Kenilworth in Cape Town.

Kenilworth Racing has requested a double-header festival for the first time.

There will be a Kenilworth meeting today and tomorrow.

The Sceptre Stakes for fillies and mares tops today’s bill. In this race Carry On Alice will be a popular banker.

The 156th running of the l’Ormarins Queen’s Plate is the big one tomorrow.

This race has played an integral part in shaping the history of South African horse racing.

In recent years, this meeting has grown from strength to strength and is one of the red-letter days on the racing calendar.

It should be a cracker of a race, with Legal Eagle and Marinaresco the favourites to fight it out for the winner’s cheque.

The Paddock Stakes will be just as good, where all eyes will be on the fillies Bela Bela and Silver Mountain.

Big betting pools are expected, with the Pick Six pool set to reach R2.5-million.

It should be a great festival of racing – and don’t forget we are not too far away from the SunMet meeting at the end of the month at Kenilworth. This will be Africa’s richest race day yet. Hopefully, Port Elizabeth will also get the chance of hosting a two-day festival.

These festivals have become popular all around the world, and Port Elizabeth racing can certainly do with a Saturday meeting now and again.

It is now a long wait till the next Fairview action on Friday the 13th, but it was a very entertaining meeting two days ago when Port Elizabeth stood in for Cape Town.

The Lady’s Bracelet topped the bill and it was an easy victory for the Cape Town filly A Time To Dream, trained by Justin Snaith.

Veteran jockey Andrew Fortune was in the saddle and also rode two other winners in one of his better recent days in the saddle.

Punters’ Pal tips:

Kenilworth (Saturday): PA R288 1-2-3/1-2/1/1-2/1-3/1-4-6-7/2-4-8 PICK 6 R800 1-2-4-13/1-2/1-2/1-3/1-2-4-6-7/1-2-4-5-8