PE racing fans spoilt for choice

It is a case of the best of both worlds for Port Elizabeth horse racing fans.

There is a meeting on the turf track on Friday and the action continues on Monday, but with a change of surface.

The races will then be on the very fast polytrack.

Punters will be hoping that Madame Speaker will be doing the talking on their behalf on Friday.

This exciting three-year-old filly looks like a standout bet in race four, the race that is also the first leg of the Jackpot.

Madame Speaker does have to carry a hefty 60kg, but should be too classy for the opposition.

Also look out for the promising three-year-old gelding Aldo in the third race, which is the first leg of the Pick Six.

Madame Speaker is the first choice as the banker of the day, but Aldo is also a possibility.

It is not only exciting times for racing in PE, as the feature season in the Western Cape is slowly but surely gaining momentum. The best horses in the country have started their preparation for those big races at Kenilworth.

Johannesburg always wants to get the last word in and has the Summer Cup Day at Turffontein on December 1 before Cape Town take over.

In between all this, the PE fans won’t feel left out.

Some of the best races coming up at Fairview are the November Stakes and Glendore Sprint later in November.

If punters made some money recently when the Cape Town favourite Magnificent Seven won the Algoa Cup, there is some good news for them.

We have found the winner – well, Gavin Venter has – of next year’s Algoa Cup.

The former champion jockey is an important roleplayer in the Tara Laing stable these days and is widely respected as one of the most knowledgeable people when it comes to PE racing.

Last Friday, Afrikaburn won the Racing Association Pinnacle Stakes for the Laing stable, but it was Venter’s comments about the second-placed stablemate Go Direct that made punters scramble for their notebooks.

Venter reckons Go Direct will be the horse to beat in 2019’s Algoa Cup.