While Khaya Stables are to be lauded for their support of the unique initiative of Saturday’s R200 000 Workriders vs Jockeys Championship Maiden Plate, the final field composition process is clearly in need of some modification.
Saturday’s renewal was won in cracking style by the in-form Keagan de Melo who partnered the Foster home-bred The Tinkerman (6-1) to an emphatic 1,25 length victory in a time of 72,52 secs for trainer Vaughan Marshall.
Keagan de Melo steers The Tinkerman home for his third winner of the day (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
The professional jockeys filled the first five berths, with Richard Fourie (Silent War), Anton Marcus (Dean Street), Grant van Niekerk (Masterful Guy) and Greg Cheyne (Bowled Over) following.
Workrider B Nkunzi was the first non professional home as he drove Glen Kotzen’s Charity Ball into a 7,25 length sixth place and banked the R20 000 bonus so generously put up by Khaya Stables.
For punters, there was some confusion over the crop use by the Workriders.
We were informed late last year that with effect from January, 4Racing, Cape Racing and Gold Circle would be limiting all their Work Riders Races to a ‘hands and heels’ status only, on a trial basis.
This effectively means that Workriders are allowed to carry the whip in the backhand position with their hands not being permitted to leave the reins, when using the crop on only the horse’s neck or shoulder.
The National Horseracing Authority have confirmed that in Saturday’s race, the Workriders whip ruling was dispensed with. This is a local racing operator’s condition and surely places the Workriders at a disadvantage, as they are suddenly required to start using the crop again?
Would it not have been preferential to rather have implemented the rule the other way, and asked the infinitely more experienced Jockeys to ride ‘hands and heels’?
There was also early concern after publication of the final fields, with the jockeys seemingly favoured by the spin of the dice and drawing the choice mounts.
That was nobody’s fault with MJ Byleveld and Workrider Coach Craig Du Plooy doing sterling background work and pulling the straws under the supervision of the National Horseracing Authority.
There is, however, probably grounds to institute a seeding of the runners, as implemented for the Jockeys Challenge up in Gauteng a few years ago. In this way the draw can be alternated between Jockey and Workrider, to ensure a more structured final field balance.
Writing in his Enews newsletter on Monday, veteran racing man John Freeman said that the jockey’s vs grooms race is not a good idea in his view.
“A bunch of professional jockeys riding against grooms. The riders were drawn so if you were ‘unlucky’ to get the services of a work-rider you stood little chance at all,” he said.
John Freeman went on to say that the first Workriders races started in Cape Town in the mid-70’s.
“Rodney Dunn and I intensified the programme in the early 80’s to run on a monthly basis and the races were strictly for Workriders that had graduated through the Groom’s School programme. As their confidence and skills improved and more graduates emerged through the programme we added races around the turn and allowed these riders to use crops because this was deemed an essential part of the momentum and control needed. After 18 years at the helm of the project I handed over to the team. They allowed anyone to participate and gradually we found that more often than not these events were being won by ‘non-groom-riders’ and now it’s ‘evolved’ (can’t be the right word) into a terribly uneven jockeys lottery where the grooms have no chance. But it’s not all bad news for the Grooms as Cape Racing launched a refreshment station initiative in partnership with Schweppes South Africa.”
