Bremner and McGrath will be stars today

EVEN if trainer Yvette Bremner and owner Hedley McGrath do not get to the winners circle, they will be the stars at the Fairview race track today.

The Bremner yard delivered a huge blow for horse racing in the province when the three-year-old filly Via Seattle won the Princess Charlene Gr3 Starling Stakes at Turffontein in Johannesburg last weekend.

For a horse to travel from Port Elizabeth and win a graded race in a bigger centre is no mean feat.

Bremner has done it before, and her team, with assistant Carl Hewitson playing a huge role, seems to have the winning formula for taking on the best in other centres.

This win by Via Seattle is a great advertisement for racing in the Eastern Cape. The filly was bred in the province, trained by one of PE’s best and is also PE-owned.

McGrath owns the filly in partnership with Braam van Huyssteen from the Southern Cape.

It would be great if Van Huyssteen can get his helicopter going and join Bremner, McGrath and Hewitson at Fairview today.

If you see any one of them, please give them a handshake or a pat on the back for their great achievement. Do not forget Carl’s son, Lyle, who was the jockey that steered Via Seattle to victory.

It would probably be wise not to ask Van Huyssteen for a tip as he rather sheepishly admitted at Turffontein that he did not include Via Seattle in his Pick Six.

Van Huyssteen was not the only one who thought the opposition was too strong.

Via Seattle went off at 66/1 and although she was travelling very well throughout the race, the track commentator Sheldon Peters basically ignored her till the final moments of the race. That will teach them to never underestimate the PE raiders!

What was great to see was the manner in which the PE racing fraternity got behind the effort of the Bremner stable.

It is very competitive in PE racing nowadays but when a PE stable goes and takes on the rest elsewhere, everyone gets behind such an effort!

Via Seattle won’t be in action today but the focus will still be on the three-year-old fillies with the Guineas Plate the main race on the card.

Punters’ Pal tips:

Fairview: PA R180 3-5-9/12/1-2-5/1-2-7-8-9/1-5-6-7/4/5 PICK 6 R1 000 1-4-5-11-12/1-2-4-5/1-2-7-8-9/1-2-5-6-7/2-4/5