Year at halfway: Kennedy and Tarry set the pace

The season runs from August to the end of July for reasons mostly due to the southern hemisphere thoroughbred breeding cycle, and racing folk have little time to kick back as all about them get festive at this time.

For championship contenders and big-race hopefuls it’s time to seriously knuckle down and focus on the coming Western Cape summer and KwaZulu-Natal winter feature seasons. The Highveld spring/summer manoeuvres are done and dusted and patterns have been set for the skirmishes ahead.

But at this time we engage in assessing most things in our lives, so it’s only natural to check out the state of play on the turf, the poly and the sand.

On the jockey front, one runner is setting a hot pace: Warren Kennedy, who has partnered 122 winners since 1 August 2019 and is more than 30 clear of nearest challenger Greg Cheyne.

Kennedy has long been respected in his trade, but until recent years has been something of a journeyman in the riding ranks. No longer. In mid-career, he started channelling his inner Duracell bunny and pursuing winners with uncommon zeal.

He hasn’t won a champion jockey title so far, but – barring injury or lengthy suspension – he appears to have stolen this season’s race with his front-running tactics.

Muzi Yeni, who came achingly close to last season’s title, sits in third place on the log with 64 victories. However, he is sitting out a three-month ban from race riding (thanks to a mid-race altercation with a rival) and has conceded he’ll have to wait until the next round to launch another championship bid.

Whereas Kennedy flits all over the country in search of winners, Cheyne focuses efforts on Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. It’ll be interesting to see – if he can keep within striking distance of Kennedy – whether he will venture further afield come March and April.

Former champion Anton Marcus sits in ninth place on the log with 43 winners, but this powerhouse of a jockey has a winning strike rate above 32%, making him the “winningest” rider. Kennedy has a 17.8% rate, Cheyne 22.4%, Yeni 10% and fourth-placed Richard Fourie 20.3% (from 59 wins).

While the jockey competition is based on winners, trainers go by stake money won.

Thanks to a brilliant Summer Cup day at Turffontein, sometime champ Sean Tarry tops the trainer log with about R9-million won (the numbers vary depending on which source one looks at).

Zillzaal’s shock victory in the Cup has given Tarry a handy lead on the likes of arch rivals Mike de Kock and Justin Snaith, who are neck-and-neck on R6-million.

However, the latter two could make up the ground over the next month as they appear to have stronger claims in the Cape’s richly endowed features.

For example, De Kock’s superstars Hawwaam and Soqrat top the betting for the Queen’s Plate on 11 January, while Snaith’s Do It Again is a serious contender in that race and in the Sun Met at the end of the month – not to mention in Durban thereafter.

Joburg-based Paul Peter was the log leader early in the season with a hot run of form and a very productive partnership with Kennedy. He has since slipped down the table to fifth (R5.3-million, just behind Cape Town ace Brett Crawford).

Peter perhaps lacks the big guns to challenge in the Cape, but could bounce back with some talented up-and-comers during June and July on the east coast.

The apprentice jockey contest could be heading for a close finish, with Dennis Schwarz currently topping the log on 33 wins, marginally ahead of Luke Ferraris on 28. Fast-rising Cole Dicken has notched 25, Nathan Klink 23 and Jeff Syster 18.

Fighting it out for the champion breeder trophy are the mighty Klawervlei Stud and the Oppenheimers’ Mauritzfontein and Wilgebosdrift collaboration. Tracking them are former champions Summerhill and Highlands.

These hotly contested battles within the racing game will be closely watched by serious punters as they can strongly influence how results pan out in the closing months of a season.

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