David Thiselton

Piere Strydom, sidelined with a semi-detached retina, will not be back in time to fulfil one of his remaining ambitions in a star-studded career, i.e to ride in the Vodacom Durban July one last time and he is also eleven short of his ultimate target of 5500 winners.   He said, “I have shelved my plans to retire at the end of this season because I had wanted to travel around the country riding and also wanted to ride in one more July.” Strydom will thus be back to ride in next year’s Vodacom Durban July where he will be bidding to join Anton Marcus on a record five winners of the country’s biggest race. He will also enjoy himself travelling around the country riding and whittling down the eleven more winners he needs to reach his 5500 goal. Strydom’s first July winner was on the Alec Laird-trained London News in 1996 and he followed with wins on the the Mike Bass-trained Trademark in 2001, the Sean Tarry-trained Pomodoro in 2012 and the Joey Ramsden-trained The Conglomerate in 2016.
Trademark was well dawn in two but all of the others were widely drawn. London News was drawn 14 and led from pillar to post and both Pomodoro and The Conglomerate were drawn 20 out of 20. On both of the latter occasions Strydom managed to get his mounts into handy positions.  His ride on The Conglomerate will always be viewed as one of the great rides in the history of the big race as he managed to slot him into a one wide and two back position from that wide draw and then stole a march on the main protagonists at the top of the straight. His ride on London News was equally great as he took him into the lead going around the Drill Hall and skipped clear coming off the false rail, timing it to perfection, as the challengers from all sides just failed to catch him. Strydom has taken a few knocks in his time in the saddle which might have contributed to his current eye condition.  He is currently still experiencing the symptoms of the retinal tear, which includes lightning-like flashes in the corner of his eye. The retina has to be rested until the tear has settled and repaired and the length of time it takes varies from person to person.