No hassle for Mr Cassel!
The jockey duel fizzles out at Turffontein on an afternoon where trainer Lucky Houdalakis and jockey Donovan Mansour celebrate a great double.
30th July 2011
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The jockey duel fizzles out at Turffontein on an afternoon where trainer Lucky Houdalakis and jockey Donovan Mansour celebrate a great double.
Anthony Delpech, or Bonji as he is affectionately known, is now reaping the benefits of having taken the trouble for honing his skill in Hong Kong where he rode amongst other top horse’s one of the world’s top rated, Vengeance Of Rain.
It’s a heads up heads down to the Champion Jockey title for racing in South Africa. Anton Marcus may have sealed it with 5 superb winners
This surely cannot be a difficult game to market. The exotic pools sent a clear message to our industry captains at Kenilworth on 27 July.
With just six racemeetings left of the current season, Anton Marcus finally got the upper hand in the jockey championship race and took a slender
Derryl Daniels’ brilliant ride in the Scottsville feature on 24 July showed that our jockey talent is not only skin deep. There was something special about his very clever ride on Alec Laird’s mare, and it shows again that when the ‘ordinary’ guys get the chances, they too can ride winners.
Underrated jockey Stuart Randolph showed the main guys a thing or three at Scottsville on 21 July. His power riding and great judgement was the highlight on a day when the top two guys- you know their names by now – had to be satisfied with just one cheque each.
The pace makes the race. Some of the races run at the Greyville night meeting on 19 July were seemingly infected by a dose of the ‘Cape
It is obvious that we are nearing the end of a long hard season judging by the threadbare supporting bill on today’s Clairwood card. Even the most diehard punters would have found the fields generally lacking in quality and quantity and the afternoon’s entertainment was rather flattered by the healthy Pick Six pool of R2,8 million, which benefitted from a sizeable carryover. The chasm between the superb Grade 1 race and the six maiden plates on the card is a wide one and one wonders whether we should be looking to the trainers or the race programmers for answers and explanations?
There is no doubt that we saw a future star of South Horseracing at Fairview on Friday 15 July. The much-hyped Western Cape youngsters sportingly arrived to take their chances against the local stars and Gavin Smith’s Windrush colt sent them home with tails between the legs. Not that we are even thinking about that objection that almost spoilt the party though…
Champion jockey title or not, Messrs Delpech and Marcus will share the horseracing newsmakers of the year award. Their influence on and dominance of the run-of-the-mill meetings particularly, has been overwhelming. It must be tough being an ‘ordinary’ jockey and competing with the talented glamour boys.
Former SA Champion jockey Andrew Fortune’s six month quest to be relicenced to ride again reaches something of a watershed
