East Cape Sprint Cup and East Cape Guineas up ahead

Luna Halo wins the Fillies Nursery with Richard Fourie in the saddle.Photo: PAULINE HERMAN

FOR many of the role-players Friday is the make or break horse race meeting of the year, at the Fairview track in Greenbushes.

There is much more than usual at stake this time, and it should be one of the best meetings of the season.

It will feature two very important races – the East Cape Sprint Cup and the East Cape Guineas.

The horses that will win these respective races will have a very good chance of being crowned the Champion Sprinter of the season and the Champion three-year-old.

The Guineas is also the second leg of the Sophomore Challenge which is open to three-year-old horses.

There is a purse of R775 000 to chase in the three races and a further R250 000 will go to the winning connections of any horse that can win all three legs.

Khaya’s Hope was a facile winner of the first leg, the Ibhayi Stakes over 1 400m. The Guineas is run over 1 600m and the WSB East Cape Derby, over 2 400m (May 12), is the third and last leg.

It has always been a big ask for any horse to secure the bonus but we are in for some sensational racing in the remaining legs.

For the punters it is also a red-letter day. They will no doubt be targeting the Pick Six bet.

The Pick Six pool will be boosted with a carry-over of R500,000 and is expected to grow to R3 million on Friday.

This will be a huge incentive for punters to get involved in this bet, but it is never easy to catch the Fairview Pick Six.

A punter needs to correctly predict the winners of six consecutive races. If you do get it right it is very rewarding.

At the last Fairview meeting the Pick Six dividend was almost R45,000 but it could be a much bigger pay out this time as the pool will probably be six times larger.

The Fillies Nursery was the main event last Friday and Luna Halo won very easily. She is now the strong favourite to be crowned as the champion two-year-old filly for the season.

It was also the last meeting in South Africa for two popular jockeys, Kyle Strydom and Eldin Webber.

Webber rode a winner at his last appearance and is off to Ireland now. Kyle also very nearly went out in style, but had to settle for second place in the last race of the day.

The former Pearson High pupil, who was the national champion apprentice two seasons ago, will be based at Newmarket, the so-called headquarters of British racing.