A million bucks is a new lure for top jockeys

A nice deep-sea fishing ski boat will set you back anything from R100,000 to R750,000 – though you can get cheaper, pre-sailed, on Gumtree, or dearer, with extra trimmings.

Richard Fourie will have these numbers in mind as he embarks on the 2023/24 horse racing season, which carries the bait of a R1-million bonus for any jockey who breaks Anthony Delpech’s record number of wins: 334, set in 1998/99.

Angling devotee Fourie is the man tipped by Delpech himself as most likely to better his mark – though everyone knows it will take some doing.

By way of comparison, champion jockey for the 2022/23 season just completed, Keagan de Melo, clocked up 265 winners in a tough campaign of relentless travel around the country in search of wins. The previous season’s winning hoard was 263, by Warren Kennedy, and the year before that Lyle Hewitson registered the same total.

Those three champions were riding five or six times a week – sometimes seven – jetting between Joburg, Durban, Cape Town, Gqeberha, and even Harare. All had gigs with top trainers in each centre.

‘335 bonus’

Hollywoodbets has put up the R1-million prize, further enhancing its reputation as the most benevolent bookmaker out there. “Benevolent bookie” sounds like an oxymoron, but the Durban-born gambling giant has earned the epithet by essentially rescuing the racing industry in South Africa.

Delpech was talking about the “335 bonus” this week as he now works for Hollywoodbets – as racing manager of its fast-growing collection of ownership syndicates and media face of the yellow and purple monster.

With De Melo heading to Hong Kong soon, championship runner-up Fourie is one rider people are expecting to go for the championship – and possibly reach for the R1-million cherry on top.

Until recently, Fourie – ace rider that he has been for years – has shown little inclination to launch a title bid. The travelling demands wreak havoc with an Indian Ocean fishing agenda.

That said, Fourie has been spending more time in planes than in boats recently – and reaping the rewards in terms of top-level wins for the elite yards of Sean Tarry, Justin Snaith, Mike de Kock and Allan Greeff.

‘No walk in the park’

He has emerged as a truly superior jockey, with the “super-power” to galvanise horses in the final strides of a race. And the likes of Sunday’s Gold Cup meeting at Greyville, at which the Cape Town-based rider landed four feature races, will surely have whetted an appetite for bigger prizes.

When he set the 334 mark, Delpech was on a retainer to leading owner Len Salzman, who had about 150 around the country, in the stables of the likes of Allan Greeff in PE, Herman Brown in KwaZulu-Natal and David Ferraris on the Highveld.

This week he said: “A goal is vitally important for any sportsman. But it’s no walk in the park, believe me! Any rider with national title aspirations is required to spend seven days a week, for 12 solid months, travelling the length and breadth of South Africa, chasing winners.

“It takes enormous commitment without any guarantees of success and demands that the individual maintains a level of fitness and mental application that could push any athlete to the edge.

“It’s also a dangerous and physically demanding sport, and the risk of a setback or injury is omnipresent. I’d really love nothing more than to see one of the new generation jockeys toppling my record this season.”

The new season started on Tuesday 1 August. Former champion jockey Gavin Lerena leapt into an early log lead with four wins, one ahead of Sean Veale, Philasande Mxoli and Luy Mxothwa.

Other jocks who are sure to be in the early scrimmaging are Muzi Yeni, S’Manga Khumalo, Craig Zackey, Kabelo Matsunyane, Grant van Niekerk, Calvin Habib and Rachel Venniker.

The latter, still an apprentice and the only female riding in the country at present, finished an astonishing seventh, with 107 wins, on the jockey table for the past season.

CURRENT BETTING:

13-10 Richard Fourie
4-1 Craig Zackey
6-1 S’Manga Khumalo
7-1 Muzi Yeni
12-1 Gavin Lerena
16-1 Luyolo Mxothwa
18-1 Kabelo Matsunyane
20-1 Grant van Niekerk, JP van der Merwe, Calvin Habib, Rachel Venniker