As I delve further into the world of horseracing with the people at Racing. It’s A Rush, my year ended with a flurry of activity, from the Emerald Cup and International Jockeys’ Challenge to the Sansui Summer Cup. A year of horse racing firsts beckon this year, since I’ve never even attended the Vodacom Durban July, but that will change starting with the 154th L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate happening this weekend, January 10th, 2015, at Kenilworth Racecourse (which is South Africa’s oldest racecourse) in Cape Town. It is South Africa’s oldest race having first been run in 1861 in honour of Queen Victoria. When England was ruled by kings, namely Edward VII and George VI, it became the King’s Plate, reverting to Queen’s Plate following the accession of Queen Elizabeth II in 1952.
So, at the Sansui Summer Cup, I bet against Louis The King winning the main race to the detriment of my pocket. I’ve been gradually reading up on the track record of the different horses and their bloodlines – in terms of who is sired by whom – but I still determine which horse I’m backing by the silks (red is my lucky colour), how I feel about the name and other random in-the-moment whims.
The debate is whether to back Louis The King this time around. The final field consists of only nine runners with the two favourites probably being Louis The King and the Equus Horse of the Year Legislate but I am learning that these horses make it very hard to predict races. Other runners are Futura, Jet Explorer, Tellina, Ashton Park, Kingvoldt, Gold Onyx and Paterfamilias.
It should be a day of great food, company, fashion and racing. There is something about the sound of these athletes pounding down the track that is exhilarating.
I’ll probably be back in Cape Town for the J&B Met end of the month.
i always wish to be their and will surely dress myself pretty.