Jocks Put Their Heads Together

Industry support for Alistair Cohen

Racing can be a tough old game. When the gates open, it’s every man for himself. However, a group of jockeys are showing there’s also a heart of gold beating beneath those body protectors.

Alistair Cohen has been a life-long racing fan, but got into race calling through a talent competition at the tender age of 12. He called his first race at Flamingo Park in August 2010 and has swiftly become one of South Africa’s most popular young race callers.

After learning that Alistair had been diagnosed with cancer on Christmas eve 2016, the racing fraternity has rallied behind him and our local jockeys have decided to shave their heads both as a tribute as well as a gesture of support.

The initiative was started as a challenge by this season’s Cape Guineas winner, MJ Byleveld and 2013 J&B Met winning jockey, Aldo Domeyer.  Aldo says, “Obviously Alistair is still relatively new, but he fitted in very easily. He’s always been close to us and we all look up to him.  It’s been a tough time for him and in racing, when you’re out of the scene, as Alistair has been while he’s been recovering, there’s a tendency for people to forget about you.  We didn’t want it to seem like that was the case here and thought it was an appropriate way to say we’re thinking about him and that he’s in our prayers.”

The lads started a Whatsapp group and then put out the challenge. “Everyone jumped on board, although a few were cautious because remember, for some, their hair is all they’ve got going for them!” jokes Aldo. “But there was a really great response.”

After leading the way, Aldo and MJ have been joined by Andrew Fortune, Richard Fourie, Corne Orffer (and his son), Sihle Cele, Robert Khathi, Jason Smitsdorff, Heavelon van der Hoven, Grant van Niekerk, Gareth Wright and Donovan Dillon and they’ve even been joined by top heavyweight Bernard Fayd’herbe all the way from Dubai. And the support just keeps rolling in. It’s enough to put a real speck of sawdust in the eye.

“We’ve sent Alistair the photos so that he can see we’re all thinking of him. The purpose was just to show our support and if we’ve made one step of his journey a little easier, we’ve achieved our goal.”