Friday 13th not the best of race days

MOST punters will probably be relieved that Friday the 13th is a thing of the past.

Last Friday at Fairview, we had a winner paying R100.30 for a win and R14.60 a place on the tote.

Not many would have found this winner and the filly Gilded Duchess left many tickets in the bin.

Worse was to follow later on the 13th at the Greyville meeting in Durban, where an incident attracted widespread interest in the South African racing community.

A groom appeared to be kicking a horse in the belly in the wash bay shortly before the start of race three at Greyville.

There has been some emotional reaction to this incident but the authorities started an investigation straight away and hopefully it will be sorted out in an appropriate manner.

These are exciting times for South African racing fans as the R5-million SunMet is just around the corner.

Most of the big guns draw reasonably well and we can look forward to a great race on January 28 at Kenilworth in Cape Town.

It is good to see that charismatic Italian jockey Frankie Dettori will make another trip to South Africa to ride in the Met.

The Cape Flying Championship, Cape Derby and the Majorca Stakes will also be run on Met Day to make it the Africa’s richest race day.

Although the Met is the talk of the town, it is also a very busy time at Fairview in Port Elizabeth.

We have an action-packed meeting of nine races on the grass track today and will be back on the polytrack on Wednesday with another meeting.

Next Friday’s meeting will feature the Fairview Merchants and should get everyone in the mood for Met Day.

With the huge pools awaiting punters at the Met, it will be important to back the winners at Fairview today to bolster the personal betting accounts.

We can attack the Place Accumulator with a banker in the first leg where Eastern Pearl should find the winners’ box after running second in his last two starts.

Sanctuary also looks like a banker in the first leg of the Pick Six.

Punters’ Pal tips:

Fairview: PA R288 6/2-3/1-3-5/1-2-4-5/1-2/2-3-6/2-7 PICK 6 R1 920 2-3/1-3-5/1-2-4-5/1-2-3-11/2-3-4-6-8/2-3-4-7