The veteran jockeys who competed in the Steelworks Veterans Race in April 1992 (Pic – Heversham Park)
Advocate Nigel and Kat Riley’s Heversham Park Farm announced on Sunday that plans for a race for South African veteran jockeys have been abandoned.
Heversham announced in April that they were planning to launch and sponsor an annual event for retired, veteran jockeys.
The proposed course and distance was 1000 meters at Turffontein, and the proposed name was the ‘Tickey Carr & Terry Lowe Memorial’. The concept entailed a minimum age of 50 years for any veteran riders to compete, with a maximum weight of 75 kg. Their aim was to establish interest before finalising the event.
Kat Riley of Heversham said: “The race was intended as a suitable tribute to the older warriors of the turf, and with consideration that races of this nature have not been staged for several years. There was also a later suggestion for veterans from the old Cape Hunt Club to be added, but that did not meet with approval from the individuals approached.
“Despite our marketing we only received interest from eight veteran jockeys, which is not near enough to make the promotion worthwhile. We thank the eight former jockeys that contacted us with so much enthusiasm, including Frikkie Vermaak, Markus Bachman and Martin Ball. Perhaps we can try this again at a later stage. It was clear from the Sporting Post forums that the concept enjoyed a lot of public interest and support.”
