Can Mercantour do it?
That is the big question in South African racing circles, which will be answered at the Fairview Polytrack in Greenbushes on Friday.
The six-year-old gelding can become only the second horse in history to win all three legs of the Nelson Mandela Bay Racing East Cape Poly Challenge in a season.
The Polytrack was installed in 2013 (upgraded in 2022), and the Challenge was introduced three years later.
The Cape Town horse, King Regent, became the first to win the triple crown last year, but Mercantour will be the first from the local stables to do it if he can win the third and final leg.
It is going to be a huge challenge for Mercantour, trained by the East Cape champion, Alan Greeff, and owned by Peter Moor.
Mercantour won the first leg of the Challenge over 1200m in August. Last month, he had no problems winning the second leg over 1400m, and now he tackles the R175,000 third and final leg over 1600m.
If Mercantour gets it right, he will secure a bonus of R250,000 for his connections.
If he doesn’t win, he will pick up the consolation bonus of R50,000 for the best-performing horse in the Challenge.
The pressure will be on. It is not easy to keep a horse performing at his best over three different distances in just three months, even for the masterful Greeff.
Then the pressure will be on top jockey, Richard Fourie, to produce the goods from the saddle.
Mercantour has won nine of his 37 races but has never won beyond 1400m.
Fourie will have to be at the top of his game with his riding tactics to win the Triple Crown.
Last season, the Greeff stable was in brilliant form, ticking a lot of boxes at national level, and becoming the first East Cape trainer to win the Triple Crown on the poly surface will be another significant career milestone.
No doubt there will be tremendous support for Mercantour and Fourie at Friday’s meeting, but others in the race will be trying just as hard to win. A thrilling contest awaits us.
This past Friday’s meeting on the Fairview Turf track was a historic one — the first ever Apprentice Race Day of the South African Jockey Academy in the province.
There were 11 talented apprentice jockeys in action. In two of the nine races, only the apprentices were allowed to race, and they impressed all and sundry.
The two apprentice races were both won by locally-based riders who used their knowledge of the track and their respective mounts to secure victory for the Jacques Strydom Racing Team.
The East Cape champion apprentice jockey, Nirvan Nastili, rode Flash Lightning to victory in the Apprentice Classified Stakes over 2000m.
Bavish Soodoo was in the saddle to steer King Viserys to victory in the Apprentice Classified Stakes over 1200m.
