While Gavin Lerena may have been left with a mildly bloodied nose after being given one to think about in the Hollywoodbets Greyville Sunday opener by Rachel Venniker, the former SA Champion jockey bounced back with genuine character to ride three winners on the afternoon as he shrunk the injured Muzi Yeni’s lead to just 4 on the national log.
Gavin Lerena – form jockey chasing title! (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
There isn’t a jockey in the country at the moment to match the talented Lerena’s win strike-rate of 26,92%, and with Muzi Yeni missing many valuable weeks after his shocking Charity Mile tumble, Lerena looks a fair bet at 7-2, versus Ridgemont title-holder Richard Fourie’s 7-10, with Hollywoodbets to lift the national title.
Lerena and Ms Venniker rode 5 of the 8 winners on the card between them, and went 1-2 in the opener, and then closed with a reversal of the placings in the final race. It’s always great to watch class jockeys going head to head!
South Africa’s only lady rider has certainly grown in stature this year and she rode a determined race to win the first on Darryl Moore’s Happy Fortune (7-2).
Just when Lerena kept her tactically tight late with the more fancied Hollywood Syndicate runner Woza Nawe looking to go on and win, Ms Venniker showed just how much she has matured mentally and grown in confidence this year as she determinedly burst into the gap on Happy Fortune, to win an entertaining duel of contrasting riding styles.
After winning the third race with a clever ride on Alyson Wright’s recent maiden winner Blowin In The Wind, Lerena enjoyed an armchair commission on Gareth van Zyl’s astutely equipment-charged Natyam in the Pinnacle Stakes top-liner.
Off a dawdle of a pace, the Lynette Ryan-bred son of Noble Tune made it 5 wins from 14 starts – he has also run 6 places – when running away from his 8 opponents, including the accomplished Cape Eagle, in the 2200m contest.
As the threatened rain mostly stayed away, lady trainers Wendy Whitehead and Alyson Wright saddled a double apiece on the afternoon, with the grey Intrepid finally cracking his sixth career win after an eighteen month drought to close proceedings.
Lerena has nine rides on the posptponed Turffontein Betway Gr2 Victory Moon Stakes card on Monday.
He tipped on-course presenter Deez Dayanand the first double of Cosmic Queen and Pioneer Square. We probably won’t get rich on that!
Turffontein is off at 11h40.
The next KZN racemeeting is on the polytrack at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Wednesday – off time is 12h30.
