MJ Byleveld has had an operation to repair the right leg injury he suffered when he was kicked by Ready To Attack coming back in after the Langerman nearly 14 months ago. But he is optimistic that he will be able to return inside three weeks.

He said: “I had the operation in Cape Town on August 4, I have been having physio in the meantime and I go back to the doctor on August 26. I will probably be able to get back on a horse the following day.”

The original painful and horrific-looking gash required eight stitches just below the knee but the damage proved to be worse than first diagnosed.

Byleveld explained: “I had x-rays done at the time but not an MRI scan. Then, slowly but surely, it began aggravating me. When I did eventually go for a scan the doctors found that some of the cartilage had been ripped off and was floating around in my knee.

“By that time it was close to the Durban season so I put off the operation until this month. The doctors cleaned up the cartilage and said the operation was successful.”

He missed out on a winner at Kenilworth on Saturday when Richard Fourie deputised on 14-10 favourite Omaha Tribe in the 2 400m maiden. Vaughan Marshall, who intends putting Tribal Dance’s half-brother away until the finish of the Durbanville stint, also scored with Royal Chian, a fifth success for 20-year-old Craig Bantam.

Anthony Andrews, riding for the first time since his two-month Mauritius spell, is keen to get back into the swing of things and reckons he has more to offer.

“I like to think that I am now sharper and more tactically aware,” he said. “Everything happens very quickly in Mauritius and your decisions have to be split-second. You also have to be aware of where the other horses are and how they like to be ridden, particularly the favourite.”

Greg Cheyne is already back in business and he returned after the best part of eight months on the sidelines to strike on Fire Master in the Pinnacle Stakes, making all the running. Interestingly the five-year-old had a wind operation that Justin Snaith is convinced didn’t work. His sire Jet Master had two and trainer Geoff Woodruff reckoned that it was only the second one that did the trick.

Woodruff, incidentally, has significantly increased his Cape Town presence. After California Girl made a winning debut under Donovan Dillon in the opener daughter Lucy disclosed that she now has a team of 18 for her father. All but five are three-year-olds.

Cheyne was understandably pleased to score on his return, saying: “It was nice to get the monkey off my back so early and now I can crack on.”

Snaith vowed not run horses drawn wide after the Fourie-ridden Harakiri convincingly made up for her Durbanville disappointment in the 1 000m maiden.

He explained: “After she ran so poorly from her wide draw I said ‘Right, anything that draws badly I am going to scratch.’ If I keep running from bad draws I am going to be out of business.”

Grant van Niekerk is intent on continuing in the form that saw him win 114 races, including four Grade 1s, last term and he fired off a treble on Golden Pass, Miss Marker and Power Grid.

Mission Control, 28-10 favourite in the final leg, finished plumb last and was found to have suffered an epistaxis (pulmonary haemorrhage). The Paddy Kruyer-trained gelding has been suspended for 60 days.

Sandy Bay, 19-10 favourite for race three, also disappointed. Although the course vet could find nothing wrong Dillon reported that he felt something was amiss.

Michael Clower