A sure-fire way to impress fellow varsity students is to get slung into the back of a cop van for protesting loudly in the streets against a fat-cat government. Also deeply cool is to have a ready supply of hot horse tips for one's callow fellows of the campus.With these credentials I was, fleetingly, one chilled dude of the students' union. Way back then, about 40 years ago, we weren't tweeting #BJVorstermustfall but yelling it at Special Branch creeps as they photographed us in our rowdy picket line.Happy days. That's not to say the current varsity betogers are in it just for fun but, believe me, they'll be enjoying the thrill of righteous indignation.We were lucky the fuzz released us in time for the Saturday race meeting at Scottsville, where I was an assistant to a racing journo. Apart from the dash payment, which helped pay for my studies, the job gave me access to inside info on the ponies.Me and my mates won a bit, which convinced us that we'd go on collecting big-time until we were rich enough to retire - and topple those Nat bastards.Okay, maybe we were a bit naïve. But, hey, the Nats are gone and we still have a chance to get rich courtesy of horses.Opportunities this weekend start today. Greyville hosts the Michaelmas Handicap under floodlights on the Polytrack.Alghadeer is a warm favourite, but starts from a speakeasy in Florida Road. Much better drawn is The Royal Rumba, whose connections won't be going from Joburg to Durbs just for a whiff of sea air.At Kenilworth they're busy installing a battery of TV screens so that racegoers can watch rugger as they punt. In the Cape Classic I'm going for Hard Day's Night - because that's what the Boks face and it reminds me of halcyon days abusing the apartheid pig.They call the Algoa Cup "PE's July" and the Windy City's great and good will be in their finest at Fairview on Sunday.Champion trainer Sean Tarry makes his first raid on Eastern Cape with two runners, Orchestrated and Stonehenge. The former looks like the stable pick, being nicely drawn, lightly weighted and piloted by S'Manga "Bling" Khumalo.Sadly, home-town hero Gogetthesheriff has been scratched. That name has a trendy ring to it, even without a hashtag...