Ryan Munger set for another big day

Jockey Ryan Munger’s busman’s holiday in South Africa comes to an end, probably on Champions Day at Turffontein on Saturday.

Both punters and trainers will miss the affable jockey when he returns to Canada next month as he has performed remarkably well in his short stay back in South Africa.

If one looks at his statistics, at the time of writing he had ridden 32 winners, all of them coming this year, from 172 rides for a win percentage of 18.71, and has placed in 59.65% of his rides. In fact, if one takes 2025 in isolation, Munger is lying in fifth spot on the national log.

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He will be looking to make hay while the sun shines in his remaining days in the country and could well ride a double at the Vaal on Tuesday when they race on the Classic track.

The best of them looks to come up in Race 1, a Maiden Plate for fillies and mares over 1200m, where Munger rides Sean Tarry-trained Tana Maree.

This four-year-old daughter of Trippi began her career in April last year when finishing sixth, but everything that could go wrong, actually did. That included a slipped saddle and a slow start, among other things.

She finished third in her second start in May 2024 but after that she was off and only returned to racing last month. She finished second behind Antonio Gaudi, beaten 1.25 lengths, and as two horses from five runners went on to win their next starts, it came as no surprise to see her go off at around 7-10 in her next outing, which happened to be over the same track and trip as Tuesday’s race.

Munger rode her on that occasion but she found one too good in Heavyliesthecrown.

Tana Maree did produce the fastest 400m to finish and as this is her third run after the lengthy layoff, she should be at her best and will be hard to beat.

On paper, this does not look to be the strongest of fields and this filly appears to have the ideal chance of getting rid of that maiden tag.

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Munger also rides the Instant Attraction for father-in-law Craig Mayhew in Race 4, a Maiden Plate over 2000m, and this filly is overdue for her first victory.

The three-year-old daughter of Canford Cliffs has raced nine times for eight places and the jockey arrangements have all been a family affair.

Apprentice Trent Mayhew was aboard her for the first six outings but he has been out of action since having sustained an injury in a fall. Then his sister, Kelsey, who is married to Munger, was aboard in a work riders’ race where she finished third.

Munger has been in the irons on the last two occasions in which she finished third and second respectively.

As was the case last time, Instant Attraction will be taking on the boys again but that does give her a sex allowance advantage of 3.5kg. Looking at the exposed runners, this does not look to be the strongest of fields so hopefully this will be her day.