Laurence Wernars and Gavin Lerena were runaway champion owner and jockey respectively on the Central Provinces logs last term, but will not be joining forces with the Johan Janse van Vuuren-trained horses for now.
A Wernars exacta! Smanga Khumalo makes it 4 wins as Chasing Happiness holds off stablemate Happy Mo (Kabelo Matsunyane) in the seventh today (Pic – JC Photos)
Lerena, who was 64 wins ahead of Calvin Habib on the Central Provinces log last term with a standout 24,15% win strike-rate, and finished third behind Richard Fourie and Muzi Yeni on the national log, has achieved plenty of success over the years in the famous white, red and black strip of the Wernars family.
But the former SA champion has been conspicuous by his absence for the Van Vuuren yard in recent weeks and Laurence Wernars confirmed to the Sporting Post on Saturday afternoon that the split was ‘by trainer and jockey agreement’.
“Johan and Gavin decided to take a sabbatical from each other , and I support them equally in their decision,” confirmed Mr Wernars, who added that Gavin will always ride for him.
“Gavin is like my second son. And my philosophy is to never shut a door, as you never know what tomorrow holds for you,” he added.
The Johan Janse van Vuuren yard enjoyed a nice double at Turffontein on Saturday for Laurence Wernars.
Smanga Khumalo rode both winners, with the beautifully-bred Vercingetorix filly Far Reaching (4-10) scoring an overdue maiden victory in the opener, while the Ridgemont-bred Rafeef filly Chasing Happiness (15-10) beat her stablemate Happy Mo (28-10, Kabelo Matsunyane) to score her third win from 9 starts in the seventh.
Khumalo rode 4 winners on the day, also scoring on Lead The Charge (Azzies) and King’s Express (Fabian Habib).
Gavin Lerena booted the favourite Accept Cookies home for Roy Magner in the third, and then closed the day with a hard ride on another fancied runner in Ariel’s Jet in the last for Erico Verdonese.
The next Central Provinces racemeeting is at the Vaal on Thursday 29 August.
