Who’s who in the International Jockey Challenge

Popular jockey Muzi Yeni will captain the South African team at this year’s World Sports Betting International Jockey Challenge to be staged at Turffontein on 16 November.

With sunny weather predicted on the day, plenty of riveting action is on the cards at Turffontein. Picture: iStock

Gavin Lerena, Warren Kennedy, Greg Cheyne, Callan Murray and S’manga Khumalo are the others who’ll wear the green and gold silks. Scotland’s Robert Havlin will lead the Internationals in the contest, racing operator Phumelela announced on Wednesday. Former British champion jockey Paul Hanagan, Martin Dwyer, Hayley Turner (all from England), Andrea Atzeni (Italy) and Nooresh Juglall (Mauritius) make up Havlin’s squad. South African champion jockey Lyle Hewitson – who would normally be given the captaincy honour in this annual event – is currently riding in Hong Kong and is unavailable for the Challenge, which has adjunct sponsors in Sun International…

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Gavin Lerena, Warren Kennedy, Greg Cheyne, Callan Murray and S’manga Khumalo are the others who’ll wear the green and gold silks.

Scotland’s Robert Havlin will lead the Internationals in the contest, racing operator Phumelela announced on Wednesday.

Former British champion jockey Paul Hanagan, Martin Dwyer, Hayley Turner (all from England), Andrea Atzeni (Italy) and Nooresh Juglall (Mauritius) make up Havlin’s squad.

South African champion jockey Lyle Hewitson – who would normally be given the captaincy honour in this annual event – is currently riding in Hong Kong and is unavailable for the Challenge, which has adjunct sponsors in Sun International and Air Mauritius.

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Yeni, admired as the hardest-working jockey in the country, finished a close second in last season’s title race, just four wins behind Hewitson. He has again been putting in the miles to ride in as many places as he can, clocking up 476 rides for 52 victories in just 10 weeks of the new season and currently lies in second place on the championship log behind Challenge team-mate Kennedy (66 from 398).

The latter, something of a late bloomer, is also criss-crossing the land in pursuit of the new title and is having his best-ever spell in the saddle.

Lerena, champion in 2014-15, has been on the sidelines after an operation on an injured thumb but will be fit and firing when the Challenge rolls around next month. Consistently boasting a high win strike rate of more than 20%, this powerful rider finished fourth on last year’s log and is a veteran of international contests, including the Shergar Cup at Ascot.

Cheyne, third on the current log with 45 winners, has ridden with great success in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Korea and Macau and has more than 100 international victories to his name.

Khumalo was crowned South African champion jockey for the 2013-14 season. He repeated that feat in 2015-2016. He wrote his name in the history books in 2013 when becoming the first black jockey to win the prestigious Grade 1 Vodacom Durban July.

Murray is one of the rising stars of South African racing. Just four months after being crowned Champion Apprentice for the 2015-16 season, he bagged a Grade 1 treble at Turffontein on Champions Day in 2018. He has also made a mark in Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

INTERNATIONAL TEAM:

Rob Havlin was a member of Team UK at last year’s International Jockey Challenge, which was held in Singapore. He has ridden more than 1,000 winners – in countries like the UK, France, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Singapore and South Africa.

Paul Hanagan has twice been champion jockey on the Flat in Britain. His major wins are the British Champions Sprint Stakes Grade 1 with Muhaarar in 2015, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes Grade 1 with Taghrooda in 2014, the Grade 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere in France with Wootton Bassett in 2010 and the Grade 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen aboard Muarrab in 2016.

Martin Dwyer has recorded major wins worldwide, most notably aboard Phoenix Reach. They teamed up to win the Canadian International Stakes in 2003, the Hong Kong Vase in 2004 and the Dubai Sheema Classic in 2005. He has twice been the recipient of the Flat Ride of the Year award, in 2003 for winning the Jockey Club Cup with Persian Punch and in 2006 for his Vodafone Derby win upon Sir Percy.

Hayley Turner became the first woman to ride 100 UK Flat race winners during a calendar year – in 2008. That year she was one of only five jockeys to ride in more than 900 races in the UK. She has nearly 800 career wins and was the first female jockey to ride a Group 1 winner in Britain, when partnering Dream Ahead in the 2011 Darley July Cup.

Andrea Atzeni rides in the UK and won the St Leger and Moyglare Stud Stakes in the same weekend in 2014, followed by the Dewhurst Stakes and his second successive Racing Post Trophy the following month. In 2015 he won the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes on the Luca Cumani-trained Postponed and the St Leger a second time on filly Simple Verse.

Nooresh Juglall honed his craft in South Africa and won two champion apprentice jockey titles before spreading his wings to Singapore in 2014. He booted home Majestic Moments in his very first Kranji ride and went on to ride a total of 217 winners in the city-state. In his best season, in 2017, he racked up 50. He finished third on Twist Of Fate in this year’s Vodacom Durban July.