Sheriff to go get the money

All eyes will be on Race 7 at Fairview today as king of the Polytrack course Gogetthesheriff sets his eyes on the R250,000 bonus as winner of the World Sports Betting (WSB) East Cape Poly Challenge series.

The five-year-old son of Go Deputy has already clinched the first two legs – over 1200m and 1400m respectively – and all he has to do to claim the bonus is win the final leg over 1600m.

He has lot going for him. As this is a stakes race he is the best-weighted runner and had it been a handicap he would have been giving at least 4kg to second-best handicapped horse, Jet Explorer.

Secondly Gogetthesheriff has won eight of nine races on the course including his only run over 1600m. He has even won up to 1900m at the course so the Jacques Strydom-trained runner will not be running out of steam.

There will be great excitement on course if this long-striding chestnut collects the bonus as he is one of the most popular runners in the Eastern Cape. Juan Paul van der Merwe rode him to victory in the first leg and returns to the saddle for the final race.

Jockey Ryan Munger rode him in his last race and dropped him out from a wide draw but he produced a devastating late charge down the inside rail to win by a length.

On paper this should be his easiest challenge because of the distance but he meets an unknown in Jet Explorer. This Justin Snaith-trained runner has raced against the best in the country before his accident in which he fell and cracked his jaw. The seven-year-old son of Jet Master has finally regained some confidence but he has yet to race on the Polytrack so that makes him an unknown quantity.

If he does take to it, especially as he has S’manga Khumalo on his back, Jet Explorer could put paid to the hopes of thousands of racing fans.