Bernard Fayd’Herbe feels cruel sting of a paradise island

Horse racing in Mauritius is going through turbulent times and the stipendiary stewards at Champ de Mars seem to have lost their sense of equilibrium.

The island nation’s stipes have a reputation for being strict, but they do run a good, tight ship. However, their latest deed seems over the top, to say the least.

Harsh ban

South African jockey Bernard Fayd’Herbe was handed a year’s ban from riding and a 100,000-rupee (about R42,400) fine after it was decided that he didn’t try hard enough on a horse that ran second at a race on 13 May.

The ban applies around the world, so Fayd’Herbe’s hopes of riding in the 2023 KwaZulu-Natal winter season – and in the Hollywoodbets Durban July in particular – appear to have been dashed.

Turf Talk newsletter says the rider might be able to appeal against the hair-raising sentence back home in South Africa, but the technicalities of such a move are far from clear.

Such a harsh penalty would probably never have been handed down by the fuzz of the National Horseracing Authority in Joburg, but the NHA will surely hesitate to overturn the judgment of colleagues in a friendly neighbouring jurisdiction.

Lengthy absence

One fears Bernie will be taking a long holiday, which will be tough for a guy who has battled with his weight all career and, even when in fighting trim, barely dips under 58kg.

The graded races of feature seasons are Fayd’Herbe’s happiest hunting ground, with weight-for-age and stakes conditions providing a supply of decent mounts. And he has capitalised; most recently when winning the L’Ormarins King’s Plate on Al Muthana – coincidentally trained by Mauritian Ricky Maingard.

The Durban-born grandson of famous jockey Harold “Tiger” Wright had his greatest moments in the saddle with Pocket Power, winning the July, Met, Queen’s Plate and a whole lot more.

South African jockeys have had a love-hate relationship with Mauritius for decades.

Over the last 35 years, the Mauritian jockey championship has been won by Saffers 23 times – 25 if you count two titles won by SA Jockey Academy-trained Nooresh Juglall, who died tragically on the Champ de Mars in 2020.

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Robbie Sham, Karl Niesius, Jeff Lloyd, Mark Sutherland, Tobie van Booma, Stuart Randolph, Glen Hatt and Paul Whitmore were just some who took a lucrative sojourn or three in the Indian Ocean paradise. In recent years, Derrick David has emulated that success.

Piere Strydom also did a stint there in 2019, contracted to the top stable of Ram Gudjadhur. Striker won his first race in St Louis but later incurred the displeasure of the stipes, copped a six-week, 50,000-rupee fine, and didn’t linger in the tropics.

Stuck on an island

At least he got out. South Africans Muzi Yeni, Raymond Danielson and Brandon Lerena had a nightmare time in 2017, when they ran foul of the law.

The youthful trio were invited sailing on a catamaran in the idyllic offshore waters – unaware that another of the guests on board the luxury craft was a bookmaker. Mauritian law strictly forbids jockeys from any contact whatsoever with bookies, so the lads were summarily charged and prevented from leaving the country for some time.

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Eventually, Danielson and Lerena were cleared and flew home pronto, but Yeni was subjected to further questioning and missed a ride in that year’s Durban July before finally being allowed to leave.

Nothing came of any of the allegations – which were patently misplaced.

Jeff Lloyd, with five Mauritian champion titles to go with his South African ones, had to endure a lengthy investigation into suspected race-fixing before emerging with reputation intact.

Fayd’Herbe is in good company.

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