Heroic jockeys light up festive season

Over the festive season, it has been jockeys that have stepped up notably to demonstrate their bravery, skill and winning mentality and to keep the racing fans’ fires burning.

The truth is, every day of the year there are heroics on the turf – it’s that sort of endeavour, packed with thrills and demanding of great physical effort from riders and horses and canny horsemanship on the part of trainers. Unfortunately, stories of these feats seldom make it beyond chatter in the bar at the racetrack, thanks to mainstream media stubbornly avoiding coverage of racing.

Nonetheless, several soldiers of the saddle celebrated Christmas and the end of a decade with landmark efforts.

On Sunday, master jockey Anton Marcus delivered five wins and two second places from his seven rides at Greyville – pushing his winning ratio this season to a phenomenal 32%.

With everyone making “best of the decade” lists, it’s tempting to name Marcus South Africa’s Jockey of the Decade. In the past 10 years, “Superman” has won championships, set a new record for Durban July wins and made himself the go-to guy for connections looking for the best pilotage in big races.

In his home territory of KwaZulu-Natal, he has the pick of rides – which makes embellishing the legend rather easy. Disgruntled rivals might whinge about him monopolising the good things, but there can be no argument that the 48-year-old has heroically fought for his spot at the top of a greasy pole over many years.

Those that get a ticket to ride in Hong Kong soon learn the importance of quickly building a reputation in that racing-besotted corner of the world – sometimes simply for being lucky.

Reigning SA champion jockey Lyle Hewitson flew into Hong Kong on an updraft of heroism back home – and landed rather flat on his face. The brilliant young rider failed to get an early winner during his stint and then found the going rather sticky.

Happily, at the weekend, he finally cracked the winners’ circle – at his 141^st attempt. The winner came courtesy of countryman Doug Whyte, a 13-time Hong Kong champion jockey-turned-trainer who knows how difficult it can be to break through in the territory and lent an invaluable helping hand.

Compatriot Grant van Niekerk, on the other hand, got lucky in Hong Kong with winners from the get-go, so now he is able to pull better mounts than the likes of Hewitson. A GvN treble on Boxing Day was followed up with a Sunday winner and a couple of seconds.

Hewitson commented that his long losing streak toughened him up no end and sharpened his ability in the irons. That’s a bit of heroism, right there.

Back home, the going might be a bit easier for established jockeys, but riding a card Jackpot is no piece of cake. MJ Byleveld performed the feat at Kenilworth on Saturday, grabbing the “man of the meeting” accolade.

Veteran US rider Mike Smith took that honour at California’s Santa Anita track on Saturday when he won a record-breaking 217^th Grade 1 race aboard brilliant three-year-old Omaha Beach.

Former steeplechase jockey Sir Anthony McCoy retired from the saddle in 2015, but has nevertheless been named the UK’s Jockey of the Decade by the esteemed Racing Post.

In arguably the most dangerous sport in the world, McCoy was – and remains – a hero among heroes. He won 20 consecutive championships and more than 4,300 races including every top jump event, was knighted and – unprecedented for a racing person – was named the UK’s Sports Personality of the Year.

“AP” fell off galloping horses more than 700 times, breaking many bones: middle vertebrae, lower vertebrae, shoulder blades, leg, arm, wrist ankle, chin and collarbones – not to mention the odd tooth removal, courtesy of flying hooves, and concussions galore.

Racing doesn’t need more champions and heroes, it just needs to market them a whole lot better.

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