Ruling champion jockey Gavin Lerena leaves for a two-month contract in Hong Kong just after midday on Sunday and will miss the Highveld Autumn Feature Season – his favourite time of year.
Gavin Lerena
“I had quite a few good potential rides in the big feature races, but I can’t have my cake and eat it – this is an opportunity I can’t afford to miss,” he said.
His contract only starts in March, but the Hong Kong Jockey Club has scheduled a Press conference for 22 February, which is why Lerena is leaving so soon.
“I’ll still be riding on Thursday and Saturday and I’m hoping to go out with a bang,” said the jockey who has been riding with enormous confidence and has won seven races from 19 rides in the last week.
Trainer Johan Janse van Vuuren, in particular, was banking on Lerena still being in South Africa on Gauteng Guineas Day at Turffontein on Saturday next week.
New Predator slugs it out with Noah From Goa in Dingaans
He’d pencilled Lerena in for New Predator (9-2 third favourite in ante-post betting) in the R1-million Betting World Gauteng Guineas and Negroamaro (2-1 favourite), a two-time winner with a huge reputation, in the R500,000 Wilgerbosdrift Gauteng Fillies Guineas.
Lerena reckons both horses have strong winning chances. “Negroamaro is so well drawn she has to be the one to beat,” he said. “I had a couple of other options in the Fillies Guineas – She’s A Dragon for Craig Mayhew and Polyphonic for Alec Laird.”
Negroamaro ran second from a wide draw to Madame Dubois (5-1 second favourite in ante-post betting) in the recent Three Troikas Stakes on the Turffontein Inside track, an official trial for the Gauteng Fillies Guineas, with Juxtapose third and She’s A Dragon fourth.
Lerena, who rode She’s A Dragon that day, reckons she will be a “much better horse” on the galloping Standside track.
Polyphonic has run twice to date for a win and a second and Lerena says: “She’s a good filly. If I’d been around I might have been in a pickle deciding which horse to ride. It would have been a hard call…”
He does not think the Turffontein Inside track suited New Predator in the Tony Ruffel Stakes, in which he finished fourth behind Suyoof. “He was also coughing before the race, so he’ll improve,” said Lerena.
Favourite in the race is New Predator’s stable companion Brazuca at 3-1 with Abashiri next at 7-2, but if Lerena had been given a choice of rides, he says he would probably have stuck with New Predator. “Abashiri and Brazuca look like classic Derby horses,” he said.
He did warn punters not to ignore the chances of Prospect Strike, who he says “is a top, top horse.”
As one top rider departs our sorely depleted jockey ranks – several top riders are sidelined at the moment including Piere Strydom, Weichong Marwing and Sean Cormack – punters will be hoping another is on his way back.
Richard Fourie – back home
Durban July winning jockey Richard Fourie, who has been in Hong Kong since September last year, has asked to be released from his contract with the Hong Kong Jockey Club effective 25 February. “My application will be heard on Thursday,” he said.
He is another rider currently on the injury list and has spent the last two weeks in South Africa receiving physiotherapy. He returned to Hong Kong on Tuesday and should be cleared to ride in another month.
Fourie sustained a ligament and muscle injury in his lower back schooling a David Ferraris-trained youngster in the pens on 1 February. The fall came during the Chinese New Year celebrations so Fourie opted to return to South Africa for treatment from a local physiotherapist. “She’s had years of experience, I trust her judgment,” he said.
It was his second stint in Hong Kong. The first, in 2012, was hugely successful – he rode 34 winners including a Group 2 success on Cerise Cherry. So he went to Hong Kong this time with high expectations.
However, things did not go to plan and he has ridden just six winners from 217 mounts for a 2.75% winning strike rate.
“Given the rides I got, I’m quite chuffed with the results,” he said. “Hong Kong is a good place if you click nicely and get support early on.
Joao Moreira
“It didn’t this time. Hong Kong right now is the Joao Moreira show. He gets any ride he wants and the rest of us have to be on our A game to beat him. So, although I was getting support from Mr Ferraris, on the whole I wasn’t riding the greatest horses. I still managed to earn on a few of them.”
Fourie finished in the first four on another 57 of his mounts to give him a win-place strike rate of 28.11%.
“Mr Ferraris doesn’t have a big stable and although he does have two or three young horses who seem quite talented, they need time and it seems pointless to wait around for them.”
Fourie hinted that a reunion with his former boss Justin Snaith was a possibility but added: “I don’t have any set plans at the moment.”
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