The return of Muzi Yeni and Tiger Roll – and some crowds

“Voting members with seasonal tables” will be admitted to Wednesday night’s fixture at Happy Valley, a move that might push attendance up to the 1,000 mark.

At some South African racecourses that would rate a decent turnout for a mid-week meeting.

Luckily for our sparsely populated venues, this week’s return of the hugely popular Muzi Yeni to the saddle is likely to get a few more punters through the gates.

The little dynamo has been out of action for months – partly due to a hefty suspension copped as he tried just a little too hard to snatch last season’s jockey championship away from Lyle Hewitson.

Yeni’s smiling face was evident at the Vaal on Tuesday, but he is still getting back to full fitness and no-one expected too much of the fellow. He’s likely to fare a little better in the results department at Greyville on Wednesday, the Vaal on Thursday and Turffontein on Saturday.

That schedule shows how the country’s hardest-working rider has hit the ground running, filling his engagement book with gusto.

Speaking of Lyle Hewitson, anyone who might have been doubting his ability (or that of colleagues such as Yeni) after a dismal sojourn in the aforementioned Hong Kong, would have been relieved to see the two-time SA champ clocking up three wins in his first two days of a short-term contract in Japan.

That was as many wins as he achieved in months of plugging away in Hong Kong and fully exposed that jurisdiction’s absurd bias towards a few star jockeys – who monopolise the good horses.

SA’s Dougie Whyte used to be numero uno in Hong Kong, but nowadays Brazilian Joao Moreira and Aussie Zac Purton share the honour – as young Hewitson painfully found out.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club, already hit by a severe fall-off in betting turnover thanks to covid-19, plans to charter a jet to get Moreira and Purton back from the Dubai World Cup meeting on 28 March to participate at Sha Tin the next day. Chinese punters only want what they consider the luckiest and best.

The British public might be panicking about a shortage of toilet paper in the face of covid-19 but it’s not putting them off going to the races. Not yet anyway.

There was a full house of more than 60,000 fans at the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival in the UK on Tuesday, with little worry about germs and infectious droplets as the meeting’s famous roar echoed around the surrounding Chiltern Hills.

Perhaps the biggest cheer was for intrepid female jockey Rachael Blackmore as she steered home the mare Honeysuckle in a Grade 1 hurdle race.

If we needed any reminder of how excited and emotional Brits and the Irish get about this particular race meeting, this is how Racing Post’s David Jennings described the victory:

“This was what we wanted. This was the way it was supposed to pan out. This was two ferocious females leaving everything out on the course. This was gripping. This was glorious. This was yet another reminder of what a special talent Rachael Blackmore is … With a brilliant and daring ride, Blackmore managed to sneak up the inside … on the home turn and she had a willing partner who has absolutely no idea how to get beaten. Honeysuckle kept finding for pressure and made it eight wins from eight with half a length to spare.”

Wednesday’s Cheltenham card promises to be just as enthralling, with the highlight the appearance of dual Grand National champion Tiger Roll. He and regular pilot Keith Donoghue have teamed up to win the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase for the last two years and, should they complete the hat-trick, it would be a fifth Cheltenham Festival success for the ten-year-old superstar.

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