Anthony Delpech is freewheeling to his third National Jockey’s Championship. He booted home a double for old boss Mike de Kock at the Vaal on Tuesday and tightened up with two more at Greyville yesterday to edge 39 ahead of closest rival, Gavin Lerena.
With little more than two weeks of the current season to run, the tux will be out of mothballs and ready for the Equus Awards taking place early next month.
Anthony Delpech (Liesl King)
Delpech kicked off his double as Honorary made amends for Dennis Bosch in the third. The daughter of Mogok finally getting it right at her fourth attempt having been placed in all three of her previous starts.
Delpech’s next was an armchair affair as Roy Had Enough finally had some luck and ran out an easy winner of the fourth. The smart-looking Australian import has had a few hard luck stories in the past but was ridden with confidence by Delpech and won as he liked.
“It was pretty simple really. We weren’t going a great pace and I knew I was on the best horse in the race so I went early.”
Roy Moodley and some punters had ‘had enough’ after expecting more in earlier starts but Frank Robinson explained. “He’s still a baby and was a winner without a penalty. He was unlucky at his previous start and did well to finish a close-up second. He’s a Derby type horse that will go through the divisions,” said Robinson.
Gavin Lerena, off to the UK next week to fulfil his contract that still has another month to run, is making the most of his time at home. He had a winner at the Vaal on Tuesday and rode a driving finish on Doosa to deny favourite Macduff and Waltzed Home in a tight finish to the seventh.
Doosra had run into all sorts of trouble when heavily supported on July day and although close, this win was just reward.
Johan Janse van Vuuren has had a good run form from his Champions Season base at Ashburton and scored a double on the day with Virga confirming that Gr1 Allan Robertson Championship winner Brave Mary has a bright future as she sauntered home under Anton Marcus. Virga had finished some six lengths back to Brave Mary at her previous outing.
Duncan Howells stretched his lead to five over closest rival Dennis Drier in the race for the KZN Trainer’s Championship when Anton Marcus barged his way to victory in the Track & Ball Gaming Handicap. Switched out from a closing gap at the top of the straight, Marcus made sure that once his mount’s nose was into another closing gap she kept pressing on until it opened. Once clear Crystal Ball rolled to the front but was challenge hard on her inside by Star Of Caesour.
Drier will have been frustrated in his chase for the title by a string of paced runners in the past fortnight but has a host of runners come Saturday and the gap is likely to close in what could be a thrilling finish to the title race.
By Andrew Harrison
