Lady Of Scandal gets the better of Well Dressed and Clever Kate (obscured) down the inside
“This is a funny game. I thought I had a weak card tonight. Just goes to show,” said top jockey Anthony Delpech after his hat-trick of winners and just prior to him winning the final two races on the Greyville polytrack night meeting on Friday.
TGIF. To Greyville It’s Friday. That is the slogan of what is proving to be an action packed series of racemeetings hosted by Gold Circle at the buzzing city venue that somehow lends itself to atmosphere.
The 46 year old Seychelles-born Delpech, aka ‘Bonge’, was the man of the evening and showed that he is well over the broken leg suffered at Kenilworth on 20 December last year when the ironically named Fear Not flipped over in the starting stalls, jamming his leg in the back gate. The force from the horse broke his leg.
He returned to riding at the end of January and while initially concerned that he would take some time to get back into the swing of things, he has been banging home the winners with extraordinary regularity.
Anthony Delpech – purple patch
Despite his loss of riding time through injury, Delpech enjoys a win strike-rate of 21% and is currently at 7th position on the national jockey log
After riding 8 winners last weekend, he had six rides on the card on Friday evening and won on five of them – and none were favourites or ‘pointers.’
He opened his account on the Sporting Post best-rated Lady Of Scandal in the first. The Mike De Kock-trained daughter of Var showed that her first run with a slipped saddle was all wrong.
He then had plenty of punters smiling as a betting coup of sorts was landed on the Brian Wiid-trained National Key who rallied strongly to win the fifth.
Alpine Ridge flies in to seal the five-timer
Belinda Impey’s Kep Secret was a game winner of the sixth race but it was Delpech’s ride on yet another Var (his sponsor’s stallion had a double on the night) in Libertine, that was probably the ride of the night.
Anton Marcus had the favourite Al Ciberano well in command but Delpech, who was limited for running room down the outside rail, switched his mount in and around the leader to grab a last-gasp win. A terrific ride!
He rounded off a great evening when bringing Alpine Ridge home with a strong late run to win the last for Alyson Wright.
Sponsored by leading Cape breeders, Avontuur, the multiple champion Delpech holds the record in South Africa for the most number of wins by a jockey in a season (334) which he set during the 1998/1999 racing season.
Delpech has six rides on this afternoon’s Turffontein programme.
