It was a great weekend’s racing at Greyville in Durban and one of the highlights was seeing Anthony Delpech receive his memento from Gold Circle for achieving South African Champion Jockey status for the third time. Delpech who is based in KZN will be crowned South African Champion at the upcoming Equus Awards to be held at Emperors Palace in Johannesburg on Tuesday, August 15.

Delpech notched 195 winners with a 22% strike rate and total stakes of R24,5 million at the close of Champions Season on Sunday night. This is something to be very proud of! Greg Cheyne finished second on 151 winners and Gavin Lerena only one winner behind in third. Delpech’s best season was 1998/1999 when he rode 335 winners and is a record that is unlikely to been broken. Amazingly, his best week during that time was when he rode 16 winners!

Anthony Delpech (Liesl King)

Delpech says that there are pro’s and con’s to travelling to chase the title. The pro’s are that you can ride for more than one trainer and various owners and one gets to ride a lot more horses during the week and with that comes more winners. The down side of travelling is that he is unable to ride as much morning work as he would like.

“This is one side of my job that I really enjoy,” he says. Another negative is missing out on family time and having to spend hours to and from the various airports and race courses. Airline food can also become a little tedious. “Sometimes I go for days without seeing my kids,” he says. The champion jockey has absolutely no regrets that he chose to freelance some time ago. He does still ride for his former boss Mike De Kock as he trains a lot of his sponsor’s horses.

Delpech is sponsored by Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein Studs that are owned by mother and daughter Mary and Jessica Slack respectively.

Delpech was fortunate in that he was well supported by riding for the powerful stables of De Kock, Dean Kannemeyer and his sponsors. He was also well supported by others trainers country wide.

Delpech is the complete professional but when asked if he would go for the championship again he hedged his bets. “Not from the beginning of the season, but if I find myself in the top three or four I will push the last three months like I did now. It is too long to push myself from the beginning of the season for a whole year at my age!”

48-year-old Delpech mentioned that the highlight of his season was having two Grade One winners in his first season for his new sponsors.  Bela-Bela and Nightingale are two horses that Delpech has fond memories of this Champions Season. He rates these two mares and says they are a pleasure to ride and full of heart.

By Warren Lenferna