Reigning national champion jockey S’Manga Khumalo started riding work this week as he looks forward to being back at the races at the beginning of next month.

Khumalo regretted the error of judgement which led to his 60-day suspension, but said the enforced holiday had brought welcome relief after a punishing schedule which had continued unabated for four years.

He said, “I most definitely needed this break. I had a couple of falls in that period and didn’t give my back or body a proper chance to recover. The travelling really takes it out of you too.”

Khumalo has thus given himself a complete holiday for the last seven weeks.

He appears to be a natural athlete and was not too concerned about any loss of fitness.

He admitted fitness in certain areas was important before saying jockeyship was chiefly about “skill” – the skill to control a horse without putting any pressure on its mouth and thus allowing it to relax in the running and reserve it for the finish. He added that another important area was “training with the horses”, getting to know them and bringing out the best in them in their races.

Khumalo said he would “most definitely” be continuing to receive mentorship from jockey legend Felix Coetzee.

This partnership signifies how professional Khumalo has become. Coetzee’s role can be likened to that of a swing coach in golf in that he is available for Khumalo to phone or sit down and talk to whenever the latter feels the need to discuss any aspect of his profession. The dividends were plain to see as Khumalo’s confidence had never been so consistently high as it was last season.

Except for that one infamous ride of course. On 24 June at Fairview he appeared to have the race in safekeeping on the Justin Snaith-trained Captain Courteous. He was sitting low in the saddle with what appeared a double handful looking around at the only danger, Seattle Light, while maintaining a comfortable lead of a length. However, a few strides before the line he sat up and to everybody’s horror this enabled Seattle Light to get up on the line.

He said, “It was an error of judgement, although the horse did have problems (it was Captain Courteous’ first outing for nearly a year).  I sat down and knew I would have to face the music. But on the other hand something like that has to happen before you can learn from it. Going forward I now have that experience and won’t be caught out again. There have been a couple of other similar incidents before and after my one. We are human, we are not robots, and it was not as if we aimed to do it.”

Khumalo has thought about overseas possibilities while on holiday, but it is one or two incomplete ambitions in South Africa that will keep him here for the time being.

Winning the eLan Gold Cup was a long held ambition which he can now tick off his list and his chief focus is now the Met. Interestingly, he would jump at the offer to ride Enaad, his Gold Cup winner, in the Met, so clearly doesn’t view him as an out-and-out stayer.

He recalled the memorable Gold Cup victory. “After winning the Gold Vase on him I knew what type he was, you can go fast or slow on him, he doesn’t pull. In the parade ring Mike de Kock said I had handled him well in the Vase and said he would leave everything to me. I rode him the way I found him, gave him a chance and then used that sustained finish of his.”

He also gave credit to the De Kock team as he knew the Australian-bred High Chaparral gelding would be supremely fit.

However, Khumalo named the tremendous Gr 1 Computaform Sprint winner Carry On Alice as the best horse he had ridden last season.

Khumalo will be sitting down with Felix Coetzee soon to devise a strategy for the season and will obviously be hoping his successful partnership with national champion trainer Sean Tarry starts off from where if left off.

However, he concluded by simply saying, “I hope all goes well and I get the support professionalism deserves.”

David Thiselton