Apprentice Lyle Hewitson lost his weight claim at The Vaal racecourse yesterday after riding his 60th winner in the professional ranks aboard the Sean Tarry-trained A Greater Power, a two-year-old National Emblem colt who started 9/20 favourite in a Maiden Juvenile Plate over 1600m.
Hewitson achieved this feat in record-breaking time, having had his first professional ride on March 6 this year, and A Greater Power was only his 460th ride. He said, “It is all down to the support I have been given.”
However, that was a typically modest assessment. He rode 22 winners as an amateur workrider, but few would have foreseen him setting the stage alight as much has he has done since matriculating with 6 A’s at Kearsney College at the end of last year before joining the South African Jockey’s Academy (SAJA).
He already has one ride in the Vodacom Durban July under the belt, as well as a Gr 3 and a Listed victory, and has ridden at a strike rate of just over 13%.
He is lying in second place in the national apprentice championships, despite having only ridden for a third of the season, and is only thirteen behind Callan Murray’s 74 winners.
Murray rode a winner at the meeting yesterday, but Hewitson completed a double in the last race on the Mike Azzie-trained Awesome Adam to go to 61 winners and close the gap again.
Unfortunately, there are just under two-and-a-half weeks of the season remaining so he is unlikely to catch Murray, who is also a shining beacon to the important role SAJA plays in the industry.
David Thiselton
