While the Equus Awards will be held on Thursday 15 August, the champions of some racing categories are decided on stakes and can already be announced.
Turf Talk reports that Richard Fourie was the toast of the season having smashed what was thought to be one of the safest records in sport, the 334 wins of Anthony Delpech achieved in the 1998/1999 season.
Recordbreaker Richard Fourie (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
Fourie set a new mark of 377 wins and he also broke the East Cape record, 116 held by of Greg Cheyne, setting a new mark of 119, well clear of S’Manga Khumalo on 62 and Luyolo Mxothwa on 53.
Fourie was also the KZN and Western Cape Champion jockey. In KZN his 126 wins, were well clear of Serino Moodley on 72 and Muzi Yeni on 62.
In the Western Cape his 90 wins were clear of Grant van Niekerk on 68 and Aldo Domeyer on 62. The Central Provinces championship was dominated by Gavin Lerena, who had 153 wins, well clear of Calvin Habib on 89 and Muzi Yeni on 86.
Fourie’s strike rates in East Cape, KZN and Western Cape were 24.84%, 24.47% and 20.55% respectively, while Gavin Lerena’s strike rate in the Central Provinces was 24.13%.
Kobeli Lihaba was national champion apprentice with 49 wins. Malesela Katjedi had the most wins by an apprentice in the Western Cape, a paltry two, which underlined the effect that no recruitments in the two Covid years had on the apprentice ranks.
Lihaba led the KZN and East Cape tables on 29 and 13 wins respectively and Katjedi and Siyanda Sosibo both had 17 wins in the Central Provinces.
Newly crowned SA Champion Apprentice Kobeli James Lihaba (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
Anathi Feni won the Workriders Challenge and also had the equal most wins of 6 by a workrider during the season, together with Phenisile Mongqawa.
The national champion trainer is Justin Snaith with stakes earnings of R20,981,288.
Sean Tarry was expected to mount a strong challenge on World Pool Gold Cup day, but it did not materialise and in fact his yard has been going through a rare lean spell and have a current trot of 50 runs without a winner.
Nevertheless Tarry finished second to Snaith for the second year in succession. His total earnings were R19,450,638.
Brett Crawford was in third place on R18,848,063 followed by Mike de Kock on R17,655,844 and Candice Bass-Robinson on R14,517,800. Alan Greeff had the most wins, 139, followed by Gavin Smith on 134 and Snaith on 120.
Brett Crawford with 106 and Tony Peter with 101 also had over 100 wins and Peter, who finished sixth in the championship on R13,018,438, had the highest strike rate of 18.9%.
Snaith was Western Cape champion trainer with 101 wins for stakes earnings of R17,254,163, followed by Bass-Robinson on 81 wins and R13,302,150 and Crawford on 62 wins and R8,447,188.
The Central Provinces champion was Mike de Kock on stakes earnings of R12,396,843.75 (66 wins) and Tony Peter on R11,983,937.50 (98 wins) was second with Sean Tarry on R11,484250.00 (70) wins third.
The KZN Championship and East Cape Championship is decided on number of wins.
Gareth van Zyl produced a late charge in the KZN Championship with two trebles in the last few meetings to pass Alyson Wright and claim the title by just one win from Alyson Wright, whose yard went through a lean spell and didn’t have a winner in the month of July. Van Zyl had 54 wins to Wright’s 53 and Wendy Whitehead was next best on 46.
In the East Cape Alan Greeff’s 139 wins were five clear of Gavin Smith on 134 and Kelly Mitchley was next best on 78.
The national champion breeders were Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein on stakes earnings of R32,691,781 followed by Drakenstein Stud on R30,753,181 and Varsfontein Stud on R22,153,894.
Drakenstein set a new record 21 individual stakes winners, breaking their own record set the previous season of 20. The 21 individual stakes winners won 31 stakes races between them, which was not as high as their 35 stakes wins the previous season.
Drakenstein Stud were easily the Western Cape champion breeders on R15,084,644, clear of Varsontein on R5,607,044 and Klawervei Stud on R5,256,800.
Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein dominated the Highveld breeders championship on R15,736,094 with Varsfontein on R8,893,750 and Drakenstein on R6,779,250.
They also won the KZN breeders championship on R7,664,250 from Varsfontein on R5,601,875 and Drakenstein on R5,477,438.
Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein also won the East Cape Championship on R4,168,338 beating local breeders Ascot Stud who returned 3,488,900 with Drakenstein on R3,411,850.
Drakenstein Stud were champion owners with R13,976,956 to the Hollywood Syndicate’s R13,154,675 and Sabine Plattner on R7,176,963.
The Western Cape standings were Drakenstein R7,561,019, Nick Jonsson R5,442,725 and Nick Jonsson & Douglas Ross R5,205,063.
The Central Province Champion owners were Messrs J F & L M F Wernars & Mrs T J Wernars on R5,452,250, followed by Messrs P J Victor, B J Wiese & Natasha Sturdy on R4,075,000 and Drakenstein Stud on R4,007,875.
KZN champion owners were the Hollywood Syndicate with stakes earnings of R6,609,500 from Sabine Plattner on R3,726,500 and Messrs Greg Bortz & Leon Ellman & Ms Gina Goldsmith on R3,196,250.
The East Cape champion owners were Arun Chadha and Warne Ripon’s ASSM Racing Syndicate on stakes earnings of R1,978,225 with the Hollywood Syndicate on R1,403,600 and Pine Lodge Stud & Halo Stables T/A Halo Syndicate (Nom: Mr A C Greeff) on R1,148,388.
Gimmethegreenlight was national champion sire for the third time and for the second time in succession he achieved what no other South African sire had done since at least 1953 and he might possibly have been the first in history to have done it.
The Varsfontein Stud-based son of More Than Ready has not only been National Champion Sire for two years in succession, but he has also been the leading sire of three-year-olds and the leading sire of two-year-olds for two years in succession (the breeding championships are based on stakes).
