HORSERACING
Whipping Boy
An uncommonly close four-cornered contest for the South African jockeys’ championship is developing with less than four months to go to the end of the season on July 31.
At this time of year the title race is usually all over bar the shouting. This season, however, Gerrit Schlechter, Kevin Shea and Mark Khan are all bidding to wrest the title from Piere “Striker” Strydom, who has dominated the scene for the past few years and is regarded as the most talented rider yet to emerge from South Africa. Striker’s balance and sense of pace are a joy to watch and he seems equally at home on frontrunners and horses that prefer to come from off the pace.
Khan moved clear on the championship log with a flurry of winners last week, taking his total to 138 for the season. He is followed by Shea, who won the fillies’ feature on Ipi Tombe at Newmarket to move up to 129 in what was a somewhat lean weekend for the leading jockeys.
Strydom is in third position with 127 and Schlechter in fourth with some ground to make up on 108.
The title chase was even tighter until last week, when talented young Bernard Fayd’Herbe was lured out of the country by a lucrative offer from Hong Kong. The championship is a stepping stone to just such rewards, with the top South African riders highly sought after in Hong Kong and other racing centres in the East.
Fayd’Herbe left having bagged 124 winners, including five at Durbanville on his final day at the track.
Of the remaining four, Schlechter is probably the favourite to finish fourth. He does not get booked for rides by any of the major stables and finds many of his winners by scouring the minor centres at Kimberley, Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth. It involves a great deal of exhausting travelling for this veteran lightweight.
Strydom appears to have fallen out of favour with many of the top trainers, for reasons that can only be speculated on. His disagreements with champion trainer David Ferraris over the years have become legendary he got fired after riding five graded winners in two weeks and he only recently started getting bookings from the stable again.
The blond rider has in the past failed to keep jobs with other leading trainers, but, personality notwithstanding, it is a measure of Striker’s great ability as a rider that he is still in contention despite having to settle for substandard rides for a while. With a few good mounts he has the brilliance to keep his challengers at bay.
Shea rides for the powerful stable of Mike de Kock and also picks up rides in Harare and KwaZulu-Natal from the likes of David Payne. He is a talented rider but has to forego many chances because of his weight.
Mark Khan has made his title ambitions clear since the start of the season but seemed to falter a few months ago when even his main patron, Ferraris, seemed to lose confidence in him. He has come back strongly, however.
Shea, with rides from the big stables, and Khan, who rides winners all over the country, must be the favourites. But Strydom, if a few trainers decide his talent is more winning than his personality, has the brilliance to frustrate both of them.