De Kock strikes 3,000!

It seldom happens that any felicity comes so pure as not to be tempered and al­layed by some mixture of sorrow. Those words were written by Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, and they aptly apply to the day Mike de Kock endured last Saturday.

After feeling like a batsman in the nervous nineties during a game of cricket, De Kock finally got the last three winners to lift the number of winners he has trained to 3,000.

They all came at Turffontein where the stable won three of the five feature races on the card – the Grade 3 Hawaii Stakes with Ra­feef, the Grade 3 Acacia Handicap with Nother Russia and the Grade 2 Betting World Gauteng Guineas with Janoobi.

Last week Mathew de Kock said the pressure of the countdown to 3,000 was massive but was a re­lieved and emotional young man after Piere Strydom guided Ja­noobi to victory in the Guineas.

He was presented with a bottle of champagne which he opened and sprayed all over Phumelela Betting Executive Vee Moodley and Racing Association CEO Lar­ry Wainstein – and himself, of course.

The excitement from the stable grooms was equally apparent as they poured into the parade ring singing and dancing.

However, while all the celebra­tions were going on in Joburg, Mike de Kock had to deal with the grief of losing one of his top horses, Ertijaal, who broke down during the running of the Grade 1 Jebel Hatta over 1800m at Meydan in Dubai.

Speaking from Dubai De Kock commented on his website mik­edekockracing.com: “It was a bit­tersweet day, but a momentous one for us and I am extremely proud of Mathew and my team of assistants and grooms at home.

“I am glad the 3,000 winners came up in feature races and with Mathew at the helm. He will even­tually take over the string. Well done to Maine Chance Farms for raising Janoobi, it was good to win this race with a South African-bred runner.

“To Sheikh Hamdan, I’d like to extend a special thanks. We are grateful for his patronage; he has been unwavering in his support while others have waned. We have a strong, young string and we look forward to the rest of the season.

“There are so many other peo­ple to mention, when all settles down we’ll do a blog and recall some of the individuals who made this happen.

“For now, thanks to my wife Diane for being there from day one, thanks to Phumelela and Tel­lytrack for creating a celebration, and to Andrew Bon for his hard work in producing the video clips that made everything more excit­ing.”

There was a kind of irony that it was Strydom who rode the 3000th winner, firstly because he recently became the first jockey in SA to ride 5,000 winners and secondly because of the stormy relationship the pair have had over the years.

Nevertheless, Strydom was de­lighted to have done the job and was full of praise for De Kock.

“Obviously it is very nice to be part of an occasion like this – the first trainer to ever train 3,000 winners in South Africa.

“What an achievement!

“As a jockey you get more rides at a meeting and you can ride a lot of winners, but for a trainer to get 3,000 – that’s something special!”