Winning Form-sponsored star Richard Fourie has enjoyed a storming season as he heads towards a recordbreaking first national title. And he is on the cusp of yet another record as he eyes Greg Cheyne’s 116 season winner benchmark in the Eastern Cape.
In typically homebaked Gqeberha fashion, Richard Fourie was presented with a beautiful t-shirt signed by regular racegoers, trainers, owners and Nelsom Mandela Bay Racing personnel at Fairview on Friday.
Richard accepts his souvenir gift from the East Cape Racing community, watched by 4Racing’s Gail Rhieder and 4Racing’s Events Co-ordination Manager, Marilyn Smith (Pic – Pauline Herman)
The popular jockey, who recently joined Greg Cheyne as the only two riders to crack a century in the region, also received a bottle of champers, which will doubtless prove handy as the end of season celebrations happen in seven weeks from now.
Popular 4Racing TV presenter Nadine Low Ah Kee, herself a former jockey in the Windy City, told the Sporting Post that Greg Cheyne holds the honours as the jockey with the most wins achieved in a season in the Eastern Cape.
“Greg originally set the record in 2017/2018 with 90 wins, bettered that tally by one in 2018/2019 up to 91, and then made history as the only jockey to exceed 100 wins in Gqeberha in one season when riding an amazing 116 winners in the 2019/2020 term,” enthused Nadine as she paged through the record books.
Nadine recalls that the now UK-based jockey set that record having ridden a total of 455 horses.
“Greg set that mark in the season when trainer Alan Greeff, the yard that he was affiliated to, broke the record for most wins by a trainer in the Eastern Cape, scoring a massive 176 winning lead ins! The previous record was the 150 set by Gavin Smith,” she added.
Richard proudly displays his special t-shirt (Pic – Pauline Herman)
While maintaining that Greg Cheyne’s record of being crowned Eastern Cape jockey for ten seasons, six of them consecutive, may take a while yet to topple, his season record of 116 looks reachable with ten meetings left of the term.
Richard Fourie, who gave trainer Alan Greeff a special mention in a recent exclusive interview with the Sporting Post on the occasion of shattering the Anthony Delpech SA season winners record, has 107 Eastern Cape wins under his belt from 409 rides thus far.
He thus needs only 10 wins from 10 racemeetings!
- The next Fairview racemeeting is on Friday 21 June.
Ed – our thanks and appreciation to Nadine.
