Richard Fourie 22nd best jockey in the world? Pull the other one

Richard Fourie, South Africa’s current leading jockey, finished in 22nd place in the 2023 Longines World’s Best Jockey contest – with the winning trophy going to English star Ryan Moore.

The award is based on points accrued in 100 selected Group 1 races across the world in a calendar year. So, “Best Jockey” is a misnomer and “most successful” or just “jockey of the year” would be more appropriate.

Only five South African races are among the precious 100: the L’Ormarins King’s Plate, the WSB Cape Town Met, the Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge, the Hollywoodbets Durban July and the HKJC Champions Cup – the first two at Kenilworth in the Cape summer season and the latter three at Greyville in Durban’s winter season.

No Joburg races count. One would have thought the Horse Chestnut Stakes, the SA Classic or the Summer Cup might crack a nod.

Travel restrictions

Given how South African-based horses are still heavily restricted from travelling, local yards and jockeys don’t get to raid around the world.

Anyway, Fourie won two of the local five privileged events – the Met on Jet Dark and the Champions Cup on Princess Calla – getting 28 points, boosted by four points for a third placing.

This compares with 156 points amassed by Moore from eight victories and 12 places – in the likes of Australia, the US, France, Dubai and Hong Kong.

Of course, it’s no real contest. Moore is No 1 rider for the all-powerful Irish stable of Aiden O’Brien, who crisscrosses the globe in search of Group 1 glory for his massive string of royally bred Ballydoyle horses.

It was Moore’s fourth Longines title, following successes in 2014, 2016 and 2021.

Interestingly, in second place this year was Frankie Dettori, also a multiple winner in the past, who flew all over the world on his “farewell tour” before retirement. Dettori has said the success he achieved on this round of big international race meetings surprised him and contributed to a decision to postpone his swansong for a while yet.

He also collected eight wins in amassing 120 points. Another on eight wins was 2022 World’s Best Jockey James McDonald, the high-flying Kiwi based in Australia, who came third.

SA jockeys

Aldo Domeyer (35th) and Kabelo Maysunyane (42nd) were Fourie’s countrymen who made the top 50 in the rankings.

Honourable mentions further down the log were Bernard Fayd’Herbe, Piere Strydom, Gavin Lerena, Grant van Niekerk, Athandiwe Magudlwa and Luyolo Mxothwa.

Fourie is currently the pacemaker in the national jockey championship, with more than 100 wins in the season to date and a win rate of 19.7% – which is bettered by only Domeyer (24%) in 10th place with 30-plus wins.

The man they call ‘The Fisherman’, for his enthusiasm for angling, is aiming for a first championship title – which might seem surprising to some racing fans given how Fourie has been at the forefront of the local
riding ranks for at least a decade.

Clearly, the fishing rods are not being used so much this term; the 38-year-old has other fish to fry in 2023/24.