Dozen Damsels Up For The Okapi International Challenge!

The expression ‘don’t try this at home’ exists for a reason. What looks easy from a distance, or from the comfort of the couch in front of the TV, is usually something beyond the capabilities of Joe Average.

One example is driving a Formula One car. It has been said that you need the cognitive capabilities of a chess grandmaster, the strength, stamina and reactions of a fighter pilot and the endurance of a marathon runner, writes Gary Lemke.

OK, so we will go to the other end of the athletes’ scale. Darts.

The World Darts Championships are ongoing and we’re reaching the quarter-final stage.

“I can do that,” we hear you say, and we agree. Except, we can’t. Those “180’s” don’t just happen without hundreds of hours of practice and mental strength.

The ladies get in some gallop time at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Wednesday (Pic – Cape Racing)

Somewhere in between driving a F1 car and being a darts world champion is riding a thoroughbred racehorse.

It was after the 2011 Met where a daredevil radio presenter visited Bass Racing and asked to get aboard that year’s winner River Jetez, to feel what it’s like sitting  on a Grade One winner. Within moments she threw him off and a lesson was learnt.

Don’t try this at home.

Further evidence arrived at this week’s Okapi Ladies International gallops at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth.

The race, featuring 12 amateur lady riders, will open the card on Saturday 6 January on the occasion of the 163rd renewal of the L’Ormarins King’s Plate.

The race is based on the Magnolia Cup, a ladies race for amateurs to raise funds for charity, which is also the opening race at Glorious Goodwood in England.

Last year the inaugural Okapi Ladies Race was won by Zimbabwean O’Meara Rusike aboard the Justin Snaith-trained Pacific Green, and fittingly racing in the colours of Gaynor Rupert’s Drakenstein Stud. It was Mrs Rupert that launched the concept based on the Magnolia Cup.

There are again 12 riders who will line up in next week’s R200 000 Okapi Ladies International, which will see a dozen maidens line up at the 1200m start.

Savanna Valjalo is presented by Vikki Lerena, Wilmien Fourie, Emma Oelz, Kayleigh Oakes and Chine van Niekerk (Pic – Cape Racing)

Five ladies – Danielle Rivalland, Vicky Lerena, Helen Richardson, Kim Meaker and Kelsey Mayhew-Munger – will be returning for their second appearance, while seven will be competing for the first time.

And the hazards of inexperience when it comes to race riding, was seen at the gallops when one rider was twice dumped after the finishing post by her mount.

The big adjustments between those who come from an equestrian background to race riding was summed up by the 36-year-old Chine van Niekerk. She is a daily work rider with Johan Janse van Vuuren, where she also performs admin duties, and she will be aboard the Candice Bass-Robinson trained Love Shack in the Okapi International.

“When it comes to dressage you have soft hands and you do use a bit more leg. Here, in race riding, you’re sitting with short stirrup irons and you’re working different muscles. It’s quite hard to adjust to in the beginning. In dressage you use a lot more of your core, and in race riding you use most of your top half, because you use your weight to bring the horse back. In dressage it’s like you’re squeezing a sponge out with your hands, as this is how light the contact is in dressage.

“I’ve done a lot of work at James Maree’s Thoroughbred Racing Development Centre and have my work riders’ licence so am looking forward to 2024.”

Van Niekerk has been riding horses for 29 years and she started out with racehorses work riding with trainer Corrie Lensley, at the Vaal.

Chine van Niekerk, Kayleigh Oakes and Emma Oelz (likely rider of Noon Day Gun) will be going head to head (Pic – Cape Racing)

The most experienced rider is Vicky Lerena, the wife of leading jockey Gavin.

“I’ve won about 27 races and you never forget your first. Mine was on Enchantress who won a sprint race on Gold Cup day for trainer Mike Bass. It was the highlight of my riding career.”

Lerena will be aboard the Patrick Kruyer-trained The US Of A, having ridden Vivacious Spirit in last year’s event. “The surroundings here (Kenilworth) have really changed. The track though feels the same and it’s in great condition.”

The best horse that she has ridden was the Sean Tarry-trained filly Wendywood. And what a story she had!

Wendywood won her maiden in May 2008 and went straight into the Woolavington two weeks later, with a merit rating of 73.

She won that feature and as a three-year-old filly she raced in the July in only her third start. There she finished eighth, beaten only 3.40 lengths by the dead-heaters Pocket Power and Dancer’s Daughter.

“She got colic after that and died. She would have been really special,” Lerena says.

The final field: