Early-season scramble to get winners on the board.
Frequent flyer miles are being dished out to a small army of small people who give the airlines no headaches with overweight.
With the first month of South Africa’s new racing season done and dusted, an interesting trend has been the “jockeying” for position among the country’s leading knights of the saddle.
More jockeys than ever are flitting between the four racing centres as they try to establish an early bridgehead for a possible later assault on the national championship.
This title has always been an honour in the local game, but it has gained additional cache in recent years with increased prize money and the opening of doors to work in bigger and more lucrative racing jurisdictions abroad.
On Monday, 1 September, the leadership log had five jockeys separated by just five winners:
Craig Zackey 19
Serino Moodley 18
Muzi Yeni 17
Calvin Habib 16
S’Manga Khumalo 15
Interestingly, the top two names on the final 2024/25 table — Gavin Lerena and Richard Fourie — are missing from this list. Those two gents took a holiday after their exertions at the tail-end of last season and are just getting back to work.
Zackey, third last term – and unlucky to be counted out of the race by a late suspension – has been voted the “most likely” new champion by readers of Sporting Post. Next in the poll is newly crowned Lerena, perennial striver Yeni and former champ Khumalo.
The title chase will surely not be limited to these seven riders. Between them, they do currently have the pick of rides from more successful stables, but racing is a volatile game and much can change over the course of the next 11 months.
Jockeys in the mix
Others who could conceivably come from well off the pace – as Keagan de Melo did in 2023 – are Luyolo Mxothwa, Callan Murray, Chad Little, Kabelo Matsunyane, Sean Veale, Phil Mxoli and Rachel Venniker.
Over the past weekend, Zackey registered three winners, while Moodley, Mxoli, Fourie, Mxothwa and Habib got two each.
A lot hangs on which jockeys find favour with champion trainer Justin Snaith, who is wont to periodically shuffle his bookings pack. On Saturday at Durbanville, Snaith saddled four winners, one of them for Yeni who made the trip down to Cape Town from his Durban home for the day.
As always, the Eastern Cape connection will play an important role. Fourie continues to get the pick of local training supremo Alan Greeff’s runners, with Zackey, Khumalo and Yeni serving the prolific Gavin Smith.
The rise of Kelly Mitchley and Sharon Kotzen at Fairview might give the likes of Yeni and Mxothwa further ammunition.
With Candice Bass-Robinson and the De Kocks expanding their training operations in KwaZulu-Natal, there’ll be elbowing for position there, too.
The prospect of the 2025/26 jockey championship scares even the bookmakers, who have yet to open an early ante-post market.
