Former multiple SA champion jockey Mark Khan joins the recent forty-something comeback class of Piet Botha and Jannie Bekker when he rides at Turffontein on Thursday next week.
Mark Khan – top man making a comeback
Piet Botha and Jannie Bekker made successful comebacks last season.
Khan, a powerful and aggressive rider, was South African Champion Jockey on 5 occasions and achieved 6 winners on the Vaal card on 1 May 2007.
He announced his retirement from the saddle in 2010 after sustaining injuries in a fall the previous season. He had undergone multiple treatments with various physicians, with the apparent consensus being that the various treatments had proven unsuccessful.
He has stayed close to the game, having played the role of a racing manager and also made moves towards acquiring his trainer’s licence in 2014.
Khan rode his first winner on Mascara for the late Alan Higgins and went on to win many Gr1 races in the course of his association with top yards, including the likes of Mark Watters and Geoff Woodruff.
Mark Khan steers Shepherd’s Moon to victory in the 1994 Diana Stakes
He was associated with top-class horses like Igreja, El Picha, Faralmond, Nhlavini, Timber Trader, Monet, Shepherds Moon, Hawaiian Wahoo and Stormy Appeal, as well as the stayer Aquanaut and also won the Cape Derby on Resfa.
The Mauritius champion jockey in 2000, he also rode in Malaysia, Singapore, Germany, Australia, and Macau, where he rode 63 winners in only five months!
He has 4 rides at Turffontein on Thursday 24 August.
