There's irony in South Africa's biggest horse racing sprint meeting being held in Pietermaritzburg. Whenever the day rolls around, as it does tomorrow, I'm reminded of my home town's amiable quietude - not a place you immediately associate with the urgency, intensity and downright fury of four Grade 1 sprints.The city has a municipality with a Zulu name, Umgungundlovu, "The Place of the Elephant". Of course, elephants can shift if they must get somewhere sharpish, but mostly they're slow and measured.This name didn't derive from the presence of lots of elephants - or Zulus actually. It was the name customarily given to the main kraal of a Zulu king and the British, when they nabbed the territory from the Boers, adopted the elephant as an embellishment to the coat of arms - presumably to cloak themselves in a political authority they weren't entirely sure of.Although it might seem an indolent sort of place, Umgungundlovu, like an elephant, has wisdom, grace, memory and a progressive spirit. Would I lie?As a journalist, I refer you to David Dale Buchanan, the chap who in 1846 started the local newspaper, The Witness, which is still going today.He was a lawyer, a flautist, a mayor, an insurance broker, a lay preacher, a bank director and the founder of the postal service to Durban.In his spare time he indulged his first love, producing his weekly newspaper single-handed - writing it, then printing it on an ancient hand-press he had lugged up from Cape Town.Charming and generous in person, Buchanan was uncompromising and searing in print (not unlike a modern-day editor I know quite well).More than once Buchanan was slung into jail for thunderous editorials raging about injustices perpetrated by politicians - often wrongs against blacks.Undeterred, he continued to write, and rant, from his cell, datelining his copy "Pietermaritzburg Prison" and having his solitary Zulu assistant crank the press handle and distribute the paper.The Alboran Sea, in the western Mediterranean, can look calm but under the surface powerful currents surge through the Strait of Gibraltar.Alboran Sea is the star attraction at Scottsville tomorrow.The three-year-old filly looks placid in the paddock but the girl turns into a powerhouse when the starting bell clangs.It's a pity the connections eschewed the headliner, the R1-million Tsogo Sprint, for the lesser prize of the R600000 Fillies Sprint. Alboran Sea is already regarded as the top sprinter in the land, having blitzed both the Cape Flying Championship and the Computaform Sprint in open company. Indeed, she might even have had an easier race of it against the boys, for Carry On Alice, in the "lesser" contest, looks a real danger.In the main event, Captain Of All is favourite but I have a feeling about Willow Magic. This colt has speed and the stamina needed for Scottsville's punishing uphill finish.Also, the name reminds me of the banks of the Msundusi River, down the road from the racecourse...