Jannie Bekker bridged a nine-year gap when booting home 14-10 favourite Apollo Star for Joey Ramsden at Kenilworth yesterday.

This was the 45-year-old’s first winner since one for George Scott at Turffontein shortly before constant, and increasingly-agonising, pain forced him out of racing and into the computer business.

He said: “I had a lot of problems with my back. I’d had the pain to some extent since I was a kid but it got worse and worse and eventually I had to stop riding.

“But some three years ago the doctors discovered the cause. They found that my muscle structure was not strong enough to support the skeletal structure. I went to a biokineticist who said he could cure me.

“A year ago I resumed riding work and a few weeks back I began race-riding. To ride a winner again is a magic feeling. I got the best posie (position) in the race on Apollo Star and he kicked when he was supposed to.”

Bekker, who rode for two years in Dubai and had spells in Mauritius and Zimbabwe (where he finished second in the championship), has been riding for Ramsden since his comeback but is expected to pick up mounts for other trainers now that he has broken the ice.

By Michael Clower