The 2016 Rider Cup, an Inter-Provincial contest between leading jockeys from the Highveld; the Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, is set to take place at Scottsville Racecourse this coming Sunday, 10 July 2016.

Gold Circle extended invitations to riders based on their positions on the National Jockeys’ Log as at the end of May and, the following will make up the three teams:-

THE HIGHVELD HAWKS

S’MANGA KHUMALO (Captain)

Champion jockey elect, S’manga has been helped in his cause for his second championship by being attached to the all-powerful Sean Tarry yard. Being able to ride at bottom weight has helped his cause. He was the first Black rider to win the Vodacom Durban July when scoring aboard Heavy Metal for Tarry in 2013. He has ridden over 1000 winners after starting his first year as an apprentice with a blank. He rode 8 winners the following year before blossoming with 50 winners in his third year. With three weeks of the season to run S’manga has the championship sewn up with over 220 winners and is one of the most sought after riders on the circuit.

ANDREW FORTUNE

Former champion Andrew Fortune disappears off the radar every now and then but the enigmatic jockey has been hard at work this term having ridden over 160 winners. Now based on the Highveld he has chased around the country for winners and still boasts one of the finest “pair of hands” in the business. He has ridden in over 1000 races this season with only S’manga Khumalo and Muzi Yeni having more rides.

JP VAN DER MERWE

“JP” as he is fondly known is a natural light weight rider and one of the hardest working riders in the country having ridden over 1000 horses this season. He got his big break back in January when called on to deputise for an injured Weichong Marwing on Smart Call in the J&B Met and promptly won the biggest race of his career. He is rapidly closing in on 100 winners for the season.

KARL ZECHNER

Karl will forever be remembered as the jockey that partnered the peerless Abashiri to victory in the Triple Crown. Currently sixth on the National Jockey’s log, this will be the first time that he has ridden 100 winners in a season. Based on the Highveld he is well supported by leading trainer Michael Azzie.

THE CAPE EAGLES

GRANT VAN NIEKERK (Captain)

One of the country’s most talented young riders, he was snapped up by the powerful Mike Bass yard as stable rider a year out of his apprenticeship. He has ridden over 100 winners for the past three seasons and is the regular rider of multiple Gr1 winning filly Inara.

ALDO DOMEYER

J&B Met winning jockey Aldo Domeyer is rapidly closing in on riding 100 winners in a season for the first time, breaking his record of 96 two years back. One of the Western Cape’s most sought after riders, he was aboard the Yogas Govender-trained Martial Eagle in the 2013 Met. Aldo had a rocky start to his riding career, having left the Jockeys Academy after five months, but four years later he was returned and became champion apprentice.

TEAQUE GOULD

Teaque rides in the competitive cauldron of Port Elizabeth racing where it is difficult for local jockeys to make their mark as the country’s top riders more often than not snaffle the best mounts. He rode 50 winners as an apprentice and in two years out of his time he has ridden another 37. This season he has ridden over 23 winners and is the leading PE-based jockey.

CORNE ORFFER

Scored his first winner as an apprentice aboard World Party in 1998 for Ashburton-based trainer Des Egdes. He then moved to the Highveld where he was apprenticed to Ormond Ferraris and then Michael Azzie. Orffer has had a rollercoaster ride through injury but did well in a recent stint in Mauritius before returning to South Africa as replacement for an injured Glen Hatt who at the time was Brett Crawford’s first call rider. After Hatt was forced to retire Orffer took over permanently. A natural light weight rider he has a great pair of hands.

THE KZN FALCONS

ANTHONY DELPECH (Captain)

A veteran of the saddle, Delpech recently ended a lengthy spell as stable jockey to the powerful Mike de Kock yard and now rides freelance with great success. He has racked up over 2900 winners since starting out in 1986 and in the 1998/99 season set the South African record for number of winner’s in a season with 336. In the 2002/3 season he won 292 races at a strike rate of 22%. He has ridden 50 Grade 1 winners and has won the Vodacom Durban July three times.

KEAGAN DE MELO

A top light weight rider, Keagan’s talents are slowly being recognised by some of the top yards. He finished 13^th on the jockey’s table last season, his first as a full-fledged jockey, and is currently two better than that having booted home 72 winners so far this season and over 300 in his short career so far. He was a leading apprentice and won 108 races before coming out of his time.

ANTON MARCUS

Marcus is still one of the hardest working jockeys in spite of his 30 years in the saddle. He has ridden over 3400 winners in his career, more than 80 of them Gr1. He is retained by South Africa’s leading owners Ingrid and Markus Jooste and his services are in great demand when not pencilled in for a Jooste horse. He has an amazing 27% winning strike rate.

MUZI YENI

Yeni’s motto is “have saddle will travel”. Yeni has a riding schedule that would test even the most dedicated as he flits around the country in search of winners. This has paid off in that he has ridden over 100 winners in a season for the past six years. He is currently stable jockey to Duncan Howells. With two weeks of the current season still to run he has ridden 159 winners, 12 better than his previous best.

Justin Snaith’s horses have all pulled up well from Vodacom Durban July day and he said the unbeaten Gr 2 Durban Golden Horseshoe winner Zodiac Ruler would be considered for the Gr 1 Premier’s Champions Challenge on eLan Gold Cup day.

He also spoke of his empathy for distraught owner Adriaan van Vuuren, having been in the same boat before, while at the same time coming out in defence of Gold Circle and KZN racetracks.

Snaith said the only reason Zodiac Ruler had ended up being at his Summerveld SA Champions Season yard was because the colt had been at his satellite yard in Johannesburg at the time of the latter’s closure. The two-year-old had not been allowed to return to Cape Town without going through quarantine. Snaith said his Johannesburg satellite yard had been closed because it had not been financially viable. He added it had only been opened in the first place because he had been led to believe restricted races would be included in the National Trainer’s Championships, but the NHRA had later changed their minds.

Snaith said about the classy Zodiac Ruler, “I had never thought much of him, because we don’t push our babies. We have done very little with him.”

On debut over 1400m on the Greyville poly Zodiac Ruler was allowed to go off at odds of 14/1. Yet, despite losing four lengths at the start, he had still managed to get up to win under apprentice Lyle Hewitson.

 

On Saturday, just two-and-a-half weeks after that debut and now ridden by Richard Fourie, he was slow away by two lengths in the 1400m turf contest and was green early on the turn before settling beautifully on the rail behind a fast pace. Class usually comes through in a true run race and so it proved. He was last at the 400m mark, but then moved through effortlessly to put himself in contention. He responded well to the whip from the 250m mark and won with what looked to be plenty in hand by 1,5 lengths, converting odds of 8/1. The time of 82,23 seconds was only just outside the class record.

Zoidac Ruler is one of a number of successful horses Paul Lafferty has bought in Australia during his time as South African ambassador to the Magic Millions Sales company. The Summerveld trainer  said he had always believed Zodiac Ruler’s sire Zoffany would make it. He was proven correct immediately as the son of Dansili was the European Champion first crop sire in Europe in 2015. Zoffany won a Gr 1 over six furlongs in Ireland, but his biggest claim to fame was finishing just three-quarters of a length runner-up to the mighty Frankel in the Gr 1 St. James Palace Stakes over a mile at Royal Ascot.

Prolific owner Fred Crabbia spotted Zodiac Ruler on Lafferty’s website, liked the look of both him and the pedigree and duly bought him. He was spelled by Jane Thomas at Far End Pre-training in Mooi River and she described him as being “magic”. Crabbia then put him through the CTS Lanzerac Ready To Run Sale and had to go to R450,000 to buy him back, despite Thomas having not gone anything other than slowly with him either at home or at the Ready To Run breeze ups due to him still being too “big and dum”.

Snaith continued, “The Greyville track doesn’t look good, but all of our horses have pulled up well. Our horses have in fact had more injuries in other centres than in KZN this season and I have the statistics to prove it.”

He added, “It is not easy these days and I think Graeme Hawkins and Gill Simpkins and others at Gold Circle did a fine job in making the July a success and the Tote turnovers were up.”

Snaith said the field and draw for the Premier’s Champions Challenge would be “looked at”, before a decision to run Zodiac Ruler was made.

He said of his July runners, “The main thing is they all came back safely.”

He had few excuses, but said Black Arthur had unfortunately been carried outward at the top of the straight and had thus ended up on the outside rail, where they had not wanted him to be. The colt had then been conscious of the crowd, so was reluctant to take the gap. Jockey Douglas Whyte believed he could have otherwise possibly finished third.

Richard Fourie lamented not being able to have a horse to offer cover for his mount It’s My Turn, who had to jump from a tricky draw of 12. He said his reasons were more due to “peace of mind” than anything else as the horse had settled nicely throughout. It’s My Turn sat in third on the quarters of Ten Gun Salute. Fourie pointed out the winner had sat behind him, so he believed he had been in the right place. The Crabbia-owned horse stayed on well for fourth. Fourie concluded by saying the Dynasty colt might have even won had he been “more forward (mature).”

Anthony Delpech said yesterday Bela-Bela had lost her position when bumped around early and felt she might otherwise have finished in the top four.

Snaith said none of his July runners were likely to appear again this season.

Snaith said about Triple Crown-winning owner Adriaan van Vuuren’s shock statement he would be pulling out of horseracing, “He is talking from his heart, he loves his horses and I know what it is like to have a horse injured, we had to endure this anxiety with Legislate two years ago. He (Van Vuuren) doesn’t deserve to be taken to pieces like this in the media and it is due to people like him that so many are able to be employed in the industry.”

David Thiselton

Dean Kannemeyer will move most of his big guns from Summerveld to Cape Town in September despite his Durban team doing so well there in the past year.

He is the leading trainer at Greyville this season and he went into yesterday’s Scottsville meeting second only to Duncan Howells in the KZN log but he is adamant that his emphasis will be just as strong in Cape Town.

He said: “Having a dual operation has been my business plan for quite some time but Cape Town will always be my base and the better horses will come back there in September. They will stay for the Cape season.

“I am going to continue moving horses up and down between Cape Town and Durban. I have two top class assistants in David Lilley at Milnerton and Barbara Badenhorst in Summerveld while I will fly between the two centres.”

Michael Clower

Harry’s Son is on the move again and he has the Prix de la Foret at Longchamp on the day of the Arc de Triomphe as his ultimate objective.

Paul Lafferty said: “He has been in Spain at Laredo near Bilbao. He jarred himself on his last run in Dubai and my French mates recommended  Laredo as that is where they send their horses to recuperate. It’s on the coast so he is able to go into the sea each day.

“He will run in France at the end of the month and his season could culminate in the big seven furlong race on Arc day.”

The Australian-bred, winner of the Premiers Champion and the Gauteng Guineas, was second to Act Of War in the Cape Guineas and ran four times in Dubai. He was placed in a Group 1 and twice in Group 2s before suffering the jarring in the Dubai Turf on World Cup night.

Michael Clower

The Gareth van Zyl-trained Redcarpet Captain displayed the benefit of gelding at the Vodacom Durban July meeting on Saturday, as well as a drop in trip, when bursting through to win the eleventh race on the card, the Non-Black Type tabGold Sprint over 1200m on the poly under stable jockey Warren Kennedy from a tricky draw of seven.

The Captain Al gelding had drifted out from 8/1 to 33/1.

As a two-year-old he won the Gr 3 Englezakis Protea Stakes over 1100m and then finished second in the Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Gold Medallion over 1200m at Scottsville.

This season he has been tried over as far 2000m. The Gr 1 Daily News 2000 was his last run before Saturday’s race.

Van Zyl had brought the Brian Burnard-owned No Worries down from a staying trip to win the Million Mile a week before the July and managed the feat again on Saturday with Redcarpet Captain, who is also owned by Burnard and was bred by Klawervlei Stud.

Van Zyl said about Redcarpet Captain, “We are excited about him again.”

He believed the athletic bay’s future “definitely” lay in sprinting.

David Thiselton