Muzi Yeni said his aim this season would be to ride 200 winners and if the Jockeys Championship came with it, it would be a bonus.

The intriguing battle for the Championships at present sees Anthony Delpech out in front on 116 winners, Andrew Fortune two behind on 114, S’Manga Khumalo on 105, Yeni on 97 and Anton Marcus on 80. However, Fortune, Khumalo and Yeni are the three biggest travellers among the leaders, so they could yet reel Delpech in.

Meanwhile, Paul Lafferty was happy with Unbelievable Chad’s run on Sunday at Scottsville, pointing out the crawl which turned it into a canter and sprint. The Toreador colt still has the KRA Guineas as his initial big target. Lafferty has two other “decent three-year-olds” in Ole Gunnar (Second Empire) and Roy’s Air Force (King’s Apostle). All three of the aforementioned unfashionably bred horses were found for the yard by pedigree and conformation expert Linton Ryan.

Ole Gunnar is being targeted at the Gr 2 Gauteng Guineas and will give two part-owners, Phil Georgiou and Doug Steyn, a double in the race if he wins as they also have shares in last year’s winner Harry’s Son. Roy’s Air Force has displayed headstrong antics at the races lately and Lafferty said a new more severe bit would be tried.

Harry’s Son, having apparently been inside the previous course record when finishing second on his Dubai debut, only lost 1kg in weight during the race, despite it being his first run for ten months and is “very well” ahead of the Gr 2 Zabeel Mile on February 25.

By David Thiselton