Tributes flow for Gerber

SOME members of the racing community are vying for punters’ favourite Rainbow Bridge to win at today’s Sun Met race.

Rainbow Bridge belonged to Chris Gerber, son of rugby legend Mickey Gerber, who died last year as a result of heart failure after contracting malaria on a fishing trip.

According to a close friend, Paulo do Carmo, if Rainbow Bridge wins “everyone will be celebrating and in tears. There will definitely be a tribute”.

The gelding’s (a horse who has been castrated) last win was in the week of Gerber’s death and this brought everyone in the racing community to tears.

Do Carmo also described Gerber as “the most positive guy you’ve ever met”.

“He lived life to the max and no one in the horse industry can say anything bad about him,” he said.

At the time of Gerber’s death, tributes poured in. Trainer Mike de Kock commented: “Chris’s loss is incalculable. He was that kind of man, a man who cannot ever be forgotten, who cannot ever be replaced. We’ll be having memorials for him years from now, when his memory will remain as strong as ever and his influence on all our lives will still be felt!”

Alec Laird, his trainer of choice, noted: “It was an honour to know Chris as a sportsman, a racing partner and a close friend.”

Gerber, who also founded Moutonshoek Stud in 2003 with partner Bennie van der Merwe, was 53 when he died.