Met Day – Fans Get Behind Sihle & His ‘Kommet’

It was a typical Wednesday bread and butter meeting at Durbanville racecourse on the 05^th October 2016. Elusive Rose, trained by Brett Crawford, was embroiled in a fight to the finish with Northern Ballet, Jingle Belle and In Limine.

Hadley Lakay writes that as she hung to the outside rail under pressure, her jockey balanced her up, switched his whip and, in a driving finish, got her nose ahead at the line.

His name? Sihle Cele.

Sihle and Kommetdieding in full flight (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)

Here was a man, from humble beginnings, showing great poise and strength in a finish.

We knew this man would one day be in the spotlight and on Saturday that spotlight comes into sharp focus when he rides Kommetdieding, in the Gr3 Politician Stakes, a supporting feature on the Met day racecard.

Sihle takes up the story, telling us about his beginning.

“In 2000, whilst I was at Makhumbuza High School in Durban, Mr Sibise of the Jockey Club visited our school on a recruitment mission. I was interested and as I was the smallest boy at my school, I met all the criteria and was enrolled in the academy on the 3^rd January 2001. After the completion of my training, I was then relocated to Cape Town in 2003 to complete my qualifying rides. My first winner was for Mr Ramsden on Jenny Wren, a special horse on a special day, as your first winner always is”.

Since then, he has freelanced, riding and being placed in multiple graded races.

At the crack of dawn he rides work for various trainers on most mornings, with one of them being the Rix/Crawford stable.

Another day – another win! (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)

From day one when he swung a leg over Kommetdieding, he was impressed, telling Michelle Rix that he was of the opinion this horse could be very special.

Sihle adds “I rode him at work and he gave me such a good feel. Afterwards I was chatting to Michelle and said to her that in my opinion and the work that he did, despite being a relatively soft and immature baby, was similar to the Brett Crawford trained Edict of Nantes; Michelle had just one word, “Wow””.

During our interview, Sihle expressed his gratitude to the owner of Kommetdieding, Mr Ashwin Reynolds, for whom he has great respect, for having the confidence to allow him to ride Kommetdieding in his first three starts as well as on Saturday.

He added that he does not receive any specific instructions on raceday from either his trainer or owner as they allow him to ride the race as it unfolds.

Kommetdieding is a big horse with a big stride and a big heart, and will have plenty of attention focused on him come Saturday.

The trainer, owner and jockey, who were relatively speaking, flying under the radar until its last win, now has the spotlight firmly placed on them. I will certainly be shouting him home.