Champion trainer, Gavin Smith, has yet another young star in his Fairview stable for racing fans to keep an eye on.
Vision of Wonder was an eye-catching winner of last Friday’s East Cape Nursery, a race over 1 200m for two-year-old’s, on the Fairview Turf track in Greenbushes.
The manner in which Vision of Wonder performed when he was asked to do so by jockey; JP van der Merwe; was impressive.
Assistant-trainer, Dean Smith, described Vision of Wonder as “a special horse” and one that is eager to do the work at the training track.
We might soon see Vision of Wonder back for another big race for two-year-old’s. The Dahlia Plate will be run next month and it should be interesting to see if he will take his place in this one.
The Smith and Alan Greeff stables have been fighting it out in most of the big races at Fairview this season, and the Nursery was no different.
Vision of Wonder was followed home by the Greeff-trained Fairy Knight and he also looks a progressive sort.
With just more than three months of the season left, most stables are taking a good look at their statistics to see whether they are still on track to achieve their goals.
A glance at the trainers’ log shows us that Smith is very close to a season milestone. He is only four away from his 100th winner.
Greeff is not far behind. He has saddled 90 winners at Fairview since the season started in August last year.
Sharon Kotzen looks solid in third position with 39 winners, and then there is a real battle between a handful of trainers to finish in the top five.
One of them is Tara Laing, who for now has her eye on her next winner, because that would be a personal milestone. Tara needs one more to get to 500 career wins as a trainer.
Richard Fourie will be crowned the East Cape champion jockey at the end of the season.
He has been riding brilliantly, mostly for the Greeff stable, and has 69 winners behind his name with Louie Mxothwa in second place with 48.
Grazinginthegrass, trained by Greeff, became the first horse to earn more than R400 000 at Fairview this season, when he won another race at last Monday’s Poly meeting. He is one of the best older horses in the province.
There was good news last week for Nelson Mandela Bay Racing.
An increase of eight percent in total stakes to R31 776 570 for the period June 1, 2023, to February 28, 2024, was announced for Fairview races. This is a considerable increase from last year’s prize money of R29 234 445 for the corresponding period.
