SA Jockeys win International Challenge
The six man South African team captained by last season’s Champion Jockey, Gavin Lerena, has once again won the annual International Jockeys Challenge.
Gavin Lerena on his horse Jet Jamboree after race 7, the biggest race of the day, the Emerald cup race worth million rand, was unable to clench 1st place Picture: Valentina Nicol
The event was held this past Friday at Fairview Racecourse in Port Elizabeth and on Saturday at Turffontein in Johannesburg.
Other members of the triumphant local team included Piere Strydom, S’manga ‘Bling’ Khumalo, Anthony Delpech, Greg Cheyne and Anthon Marcus. After an unfortunate incident before the first race on Saturday, S’Manga Khumalo was stood down and Muzi Yeni was given the privilege to take up his rides for the 2nd leg. S’Manga was reported to be in stable condition.
Our boys beat the International team captained by the now retired Hayley Turner from England, the first ever female to consistently be one of the leading jockeys in the UK and a true legend in her own right. Her International team members included Pat Cosgrave (Ireland), Robert Havlin (Scotland), Eduardo Pedroza (Panama), Francisco Franco da Silva(Brazil) and Aurelien Lemaitre (France).
Hayley Turner brought the crowd to its feet when in a thrilling finish she got her mount Dream Galaxy’s nose down on the line, to win by the proverbial whisker.
The jockeys rode in four races at each of the two events with South Africa achieving 453 points compared to the International Team’s 368 points over the two days. In addition Anthony Delpech was awarded as top rider overall achieving 92 points.
In the last eight years of this prestigious event, South Africa has won six times and the international team has won twice. Racing. It’s a Rush was once again the official sponsor of this year’s International Jockeys Challenge – bringing together the thrill of horseracing, great South African and global talent, and above all else a wonderful day at the races. Win or lose, horseracing was the champion.
