It is time to bring out the big guns!
The first feature races of the new East Cape season will form part of the exciting meeting this coming Friday at the Fairview track in Greenbushes. Some of the best horses in the province will be in action in the R175 000 Memorial Mile and the R150 000 Jockey Club Stakes for fillies and mares over 2000.
The new local season is now well under way, and the third Fairview meeting was held yesterday on the poly surface.
In the process, a familiar face made his return to Gqeberha. Jockey Wayne Agrella is back at Fairview, and straight away he showed he means business. Agrella was the first of the locally based jockeys to find the winners’ enclosure at Fairview this season.
He rode a great race to win with the four-year-old Bright Future, trained by Lunga Gila, at last Friday’s Poly meeting.
“I am back and my weight is down from 64kgs to 55. I feel at this riding weight I could be competitive,” Agrella said.
A motivated Agrella could challenge for the East Cape local jockey championship won by Eldin Webber last season.
Webber will be back in the saddle soon after he has recovered from a broken leg. He missed the last two months of the 2024/’25 season, but did enough before that to claim the title.
Webber returned from Ireland at the start of last season and wanted to prove he is capable of winning the title.
“My goal was to win the Championship. I put my head down and worked hard.
“Piece by piece, things fell in place and I achieved my goal,” Webber explained his success.
Webber rode 15 winners, but it could have been a lot more with a little bit of luck. He had 22 second places and 25 thirds.
“You win some, you lose some. That is the name of the game. If you don’t make the right move at the right time you lose.”
Webber is delighted that there is a championship for the local jockeys to aim for.
“We feel we are worth something. Being the local champion means a lot to me; it is something that I can put on my CV when I want to go riding overseas.”
Now he can’t wait to start defending his title.
“I guess I will have to kick-start my season. This season I want to do even better. I want to at least double my number of winners.”
The local racing fraternity will follow proceedings at the Equus Awards, which take place in Durban tomorrow night, with huge interest.
The prestigious Awards evening is the national awards for the past season. Cereus, trained by Alan Greeff, was the last East Cape horse honoured in 2002 at these Awards.
Golden Palm, also from the Greeff stable, should be named as the Champion Two-Year-Old Filly of the season.
