David Thiselton
Craig Zackey was on fire for the whole of last week which first saw him claw back a deficit in the national jockeys championship and then saw him forge clear.
After the Champions Day meeting, at which both Richard Fourie and Gavin Lerena scored four-timers, the standings were Fourie 176, Lerena 174 and Zackey 171.
However, Zackey has since scored a double at last week’s Hollywoodbets Greyville Monday meeting, a treble at the Hollywoodbets Scottsville Wednesday meeting, he won both races at the Vaal Classic meeting last Thursday which was abandoned after the 2nd race, he rode a treble at the Fairview turf meeting on Friday and he rode a double at the Hollywoodbets Greyville meeting on Sunday.
The standings are now Zackey 183, Fourie 177 and Lerena 174.
Zackey’s 12 winners in the week came at a strike rate of 37,50%, while Fourie had only eight rides in the week for one win and Lerena had a blank from seven rides.
Fourie might have to up his travel rate to beat Zackey, but probably remains the favourite due to the devastating form his East Cape guv’nor Alan Greeff is in. Greeff has had 122 wins this season, 120 of them in the East Cape, and he should pass his own East Cape record of 176 wins in season, which he set in 2019.
Fourie should also easily beat his own East Cape record of 119 wins he set last season as he is already on 103.
Lerena has been handed a 90 day suspension of which 60 are suspended for the Jason Gates whipping incident. So he will be out of the title race unless he is able to stretch out the process in order to only take the effective 30 days next season. SA jockeys seem to be able to delay the taking of a suspension through the appeal process and the slowness and lack of uniformity in setting inquiry or appeal dates.
Fourie is leading the way this season for Gr 1 wins and black type wins.
He has had six Gr 1 victories this season already. The record is thought to be Weichong Marwing’s 13 Gr 1 wins in the 1998/1999 season.
Lerena has had four Gr 1 wins this season and Zackey has had three, so the three leading riders are also leading the Gr 1 count.
The other Gr 1 scorers are Calvin Habib, Piere Strydom and Ryan Munger.
Fourie has had 19 stakes race (black type) successes this season, including the six Gr 1s, Lerena has had 12, Zackey had had eleven, Strydom has had seven, Rachel Venniker has had six, Sean Veale has had five, Aldo Domeyer has had five, Muzi Yeni has had four, Munger has had four, Habib has had four, Kabelo Matsunyane has had four, Raymond Danielson has had three, Serino Moodley has had three, JP van der Merwe has had two, Marco van Rensburg has had two and Grant van Niekerk has had two.
Deryl Daniels is the only other jockey with more than one stakes success, although all three of his black type successes have been in Zimbabwe.
The East Cape Jockeys championship sees Fourie on 103 wins, Zackey on 56 and Chase Maujean on 21.
The KZN Jockeys championship is being led by Rachel Venniker on 46 wins with Sean Veale next best on 45 and Zackey is on 38.
The Gauteng Championship is led by Lerena on 122, Yeni on 63 and Strydom on 56.
The Western Cape Championship is being led by Fourie on 66, Van der Merwe on 44 and Domeyer on 42.
Trent Mayhew leads the national Apprentice Championship this season with 20 wins and is followed by Nirvan Nastili and Brevan Plaaitjies who each have eleven wins.
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong SA Jockey Academy (SAJA) graduate Karis Teetan rode a treble at Sha Tin on Sunday.
He has had a quiet time lately by his standards and the treble took him to 30 wins for the season and sixth on the Jockeys Log, one position behind ex-pat South African and SAJA graduate Luke Ferraris, who is having his best season on the island and is on 33 wins.
Lyle Hewitson and Keagan de Melo, the other two ex-pat South African SAJA graduates, are on 18 and eight wins respectively in seasons they will both be disappointed with to date. They lie 13th and 18th on the log respectively.