Vodacom Durban July-winning jockey Piere Strydom admitted he had jumped off Talktothestars for the Gr 1 Mercury Sprint, to be run this Saturday at Greyville, only because of loyalty to the connections of Trip Tease.

He said, “I have been riding for Louis (Goosen) and Mr Ferreira for so long and don’t want to mess it up for just one ride. But, if that was not the case I would have chosen to ride Talktothestars without a doubt. “

Trip Tease has only ever raced beyond 1000m once, but Strydom said the speedster had been settling a bit better lately, so was hopeful he would stay the 1200m trip. The five-year-old Trippi gelding, who has won 15 of his 25 races, has only been around the turn once on turf, and that was when winning over 1000m early in his career on the Turffontein Inside track. Strydom felt only Saturday’s race would tell how he handled the Greyville turn.

Strydom makes Talktothestars, whom he won the Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Sprint on, as well as Trip To Heaven the pair to beat on Saturday. He said the only thing in Trip Tease’s favour over that pair was his pole position draw.

Meanwhile, Trip To Heaven and Talktothestars are drawn 5 and 15 respectively. Strydom concluded, “Hopefully from the draw we have a chance.”

The Joey Ramsden-trained The Conglomerate provided Strydom with a record-equalling fourth July victory two weekends ago. The brilliant rider joined the great Harold “Tiger” Wright as well as Anton Marcus and Anthony Delpech on that mark.

Strydom compared his first July winner London News (1996) to The Conglomerate, “London News was made for the July, he had natural gatespeed, he travelled well and he had great acceleration. But The Conglomerate didn’t have much in his favour and everything had to come right on the day.”

He had committed to ride for owner Markus Jooste after one of his many original options Black Arthur had initially been set to carry 53kg. However, he admitted asking to be released from this commitment after winning the Rising Sun Gold Challenge on Mac De Lago. The answer was no and he then still had to wait for Anton Marcus to make his choice too.

He said, “I was only on The Conglomerate at the last minute and we then drew 20. But on the day everything just worked out extremely well from the point of view of soundness, the way he behaved at the start, the way he started, then there wasn’t much pace, so he got there for nothing and then he quickened well. You don’t always get all of that.”

In the back of his mind had been the strangeness of the weight structure, with most of the field including all bar one of the three-year-olds being under sufferance.

However, in his analysis “nothing stood out” and ”form-wise there was about 2,5 lengths from first to last, everything had a small chance.” Therefore, when getting into his handy position for nothing he was confident he had a chance, especially with the going being quick on the day.

His confidence proved well founded as the four-year-old Australian-bred Lonhro gelding quickened well and had the race won before the flying Marinaresco arrived on the scene to be beaten just 0,25 lengths.

Strydom’s milestone 5000^th winner was also achieved in the Jooste colours on a Ramsden-trained horse when winning the Gr 2 Selangor Cup on November 22, 2014, on Act Of War.

The peerless jockey has already ridden three Gr 1 winners since coming back from a three-and-half-month layoff for a broken collar bone on May 24 and will be hoping to add another one on Saturday.

David Thiselton