Another racing dream beckons for the great Muis Roberts

Two titans of the South African turf – Michael “Muis” Roberts (69) and Piere “Striker” Strydom (56) – had never teamed up in a horse race until this year.

Now the two old timers spin together in the 2023 Hollywoodbets Durban July, with youthful race favourite See It Again.

Roberts revealed this week that six-time champion jockey Strydom had never ridden a horse for him since he – an 11-time South African champion himself, not to mention a British champ – switched to training in 2001.

The professional paths just never crossed. But fate stepped in one day in February in Cape Town.

“See It Again’s owner Nick Jonsson and I were toying around with possible jockeys for the Cape Derby, when Piere suddenly became available as his booked mount was scratched.

“We jumped at the chance; he’s very experienced and a good judge of pace,” recalls Roberts.

At odds of 50-1, Strydom and See It Again stunned Kenilworth racecourse into silence, flying up to beat hot-pot Charles Dickens.

July favourite

It was Roberts’s first Grade 1 winner and Strydom declared he was “happy to have ridden it for him”. So happy that he put off retirement from the saddle – for the umpteenth time – for a crack at a record-equalling fifth Durban July victory.

There followed a second place to Charles Dickens in the KZN Guineas, in which Strydom and See It Again didn’t get a clear run, and then a cracking victory in the prestigious Daily News 2000.

With two Classics under the belt and stunning finishing speed, the son of Twice Over is a deserving July favourite.

The trainer reports the horse “doing very well” at Summerveld training centre at Hillcrest in the lead-up to the big one – the R5-million showdown that is the ultimate goal of everyone in South African racing.

“He’s a placid horse, no trouble at all; a real gentleman,” says Roberts.

He is ridden every morning by stable jockey Rachel Venniker, the only female rider in the country, who Roberts and Jonsson have praised for her dedication in preparing their star.

The beginning of ‘Muis’

Roberts began his career at Summerveld’s SA Jockey Academy at 14, getting the nickname “Muis” as he was such a small kid.

Small size, big determination. He won his first race in 1968, at Scottsville on his sixth ride, a horse called Smyrna. (Yours truly was there!)

Even as an apprentice, he took local racing by storm. He won every big race, except the July – though he filled every placing box for that. Great horses he partnered included Bold Tropic, Sledgehammer, Majestic Crown, Sentinel and Wolf Power.

He got a chance to ride in the UK, and British racegoers saw the sublime horsemanship of “Mouse” or “The Papal Wave” (due to his raised-hand winning salute).

Winning British Classics like the Oaks fulfilled a lifelong ambition. The mighty Mtoto, on whom he won two Coral Eclipses and a King George & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, he rates the best horse he ever rode, while the Japan Cup triumph on Lando was another highlight.

Finally, July success

But there was a niggle: no July win – with the jockey coming home every couple of years for another stab at it.

Eventually it came in 1996 – appropriately aboard a tiny 16-1 shot called Super Quality. It wasn’t quite at the level of some of his international honours, but it was among the proudest of his 3,968 race wins.

(For his part, Strydom has won 5,500-plus times and the July on London News, Trademark, Pomodoro and The Conglomerate.)

The two jocks have “always been great mates”, says Muis. “Piere was never a loud guy in the jockey room.”

The great man just hopes Striker “doesn’t leave his brains in the jockey room on July day” – as he cheerfully admits to having done himself on occasion.

“The July is our race, you know; there’s a special feel on the day and we can all get overexcited.”

Jokes aside, Roberts believes the biggest “danger” to See It Again on Saturday is not another horse but the prospect of not getting a clear passage in the race. He is comforted by having arguably the next greatest talent to himself in the saddle to negotiate what is always a hectic, rough contest.

A postscript: When Strydom and See It Again were greeted by groom Daniel after their Cape Derby triumph, the latter chirped: “Muis Roberts was a great jockey, but Strydom is better!”