With only images of past events on the walls of Clairwood Racecourse to savour and the imminent closure of the racecourse next year, it was good to see a colourful crowd of some 22 000 people cheering home the horses at the once glorious "garden course".

One of the last running's of the Rising Sun Gold Challenge at Clairwood, with the 2014 edition most likely to be the last at this course, was enthusiastically attended by the large readership and fans of the Rising Sun community newspaper group who did an outstanding job in getting supporters to the course; a task that racing event organisers find difficult to do.

With presence of soapie stars from Zee TV and rich prizes to be won, it proved too good an opportunity to miss. Moga Pillay, the ex-chairperson for the KZN Gold Circle board stated, "It was an idea I took to Vijay Maharaj, Rising Sun's owner eight years ago and look at the results."

Graeme Hawkins, the Racing and Marketing Director of Gold Circle, also mentioned that buses of people from old age homes and centres were brought out to enjoy the day. Kudos to the company for this initative as racing needs to be apart of the local communities.

The largely Indian community based in nearby areas dominated the event with that sector of the population proving to be the lifeblood of horseracing in the province of KZN. In fact many believe that if it were not for this community the industry in the province would be relic of the past. Gold Circle has now become a very profitable company with their divorce from the loss making entity that is Western Cape Racing. The company is turning it focus onto community initiatives, capital investments and customer experience with numerous plans in the pipeline. One of its newest pieces of equipment spend imported from Australia was the starting stalls on course used for races that were run around the turn (see image).

It is just a pity that the board at the company doesn't properly reflect the demographics that it actually serves, but then again neither does the trainer or breeding ranks in the province, with limited representation from these communities that pour millions into the betting aspect of the game.These issues should be adressed urgently with focus of future planning needed to bring the industry up to speed with transformation objectives as laid out by the government.

The Rising Sun has proven that there are people out there willing to come to the racecourse, even if it for the entertainment, the fashion, the cars and the models. The horses may at times play a bit part in the day but it does allow racing to showcase its wears to even just a tiny interested portion of that large crowd. It was also great to see these fans cheer home a champion in the form of Variety  Club in a manner that befits the star that he is. Even for a moment trainer Ramsden, jockey Marcus and the connections felt adored outside of the established July and Met days. It was Clairwood from the 1970's and 1980's again, in true colour, the way we remember it when we were once the fans that filled those 22 000 grandstand seats to see the stars that we once revered.