Jockeys Craig Zackey, Gavin Lerena and Richard Fourie are embroiled in a titanic three-way fight for the 2024/25 national jockeys’ title and their hunt for Championship honours is one of several fascinating sub-plots to this weekend’s Highveld fixture on Turffontein’s Standside track.
The 11-event Championships Finale meeting on Saturday 26 April brings the curtain down on Joburg’s autumn feature-race season and includes four Grade 2 races, two Grade 3 events and a Listed contest.
There are also additional exotic bet pools on offer with TAB offering its customers two BiPot pools to bet into as well as three Jackpots to take advantage of!
Fourie, back in the saddle after a well-deserved fishing break recently, is particularly strong throughout the card and it should pay to follow last season’s record-breaking reigning champion.
He ought to get the meeting off to a positive start for leading Highveld trainer Sean Tarry aboard Drakenstein Stud-homebred One Fine Winter, a daughter of What A Winter.
This two-year-old filly finished second in a Grade 2 over 1160m last time out and a repeat of that performance in the opener (Race 1), the Grade 3 Pretty Polly Stakes over 1100m.
The Tarry-Drakenstein combination should find themselves back in the winners’ enclosure after Race 2, the Grade 3 Protea Stakes, also over 1100m.
They team up with Gimmethegreenlight filly Green Diamond, a last-start Grade 2 scorer over 1160m under Zackey who retains the ride.
With Ryan Munger returning to Canada after a productive off-season on home soil, Fourie takes over the reins on Candice Dawson-trained My Soul Mate, a maturing stayer who should clinch the Highveld’s Champion Stayer award by following up her Listed Caradoc Gold Cup win with another Listed victory in Race 3, the Gold Bowl over 3200m.
Explosive Bond (second), Nebraas (third) and Twenty Drachma’s (fourth) chased home My Soul Mate last time but aren’t likely to turn the tables over this extended trip on similar weight terms.
Lerena gets his chance to shine in Race 4, the Grade 2 Camelia Stakes, on Tony Peter-trained sprinter Almond Sea. This speedy Canford Cliffs filly had legitimate excuses for a disappointing last start in which she finished fifth behind re-opposing rival Mia Moo.
Peter’s charge is not only better than that performance suggests but also 4kg better off with her last-start conqueror for a 3.55-length beating.
The pendulum could swing again in Race 5, the Grade 2 Igugu Stakes over 2000, this time in favour of Zackey who rides Tarry-trained World Of Alice for the 11th time. In 10 previous associations, the pair have only missed the frame once – winning twice and finishing second on four occasions, including last time out in the Grade 2 Wilgerbosdrift SA Oaks over 2450m.
Racing for the first time in six starts without blinkers fitted, World Of Alice only narrowly failed to reel-in Grade 1 winner Fiery Pegasus who made all under a tactically masterful ride by Fourie.
Lerena rides the likely threat for top honours in Roy Magner-trained Olivia’s Way who, on the evidence of her last-start fourth against male opposition in the Grade 1 SA Derby last time, should fight out the finish.
The Tarry train rolls full steam ahead to Race 6 and should churn out another winner in the form of Let’s Go Now in the Grade 2 Colorado King Stakes over 2000m. This Gimmethegreenlight filly was second in an 1800m Listed race before finishing fourth in a 1600m Grade 1 event last time.
Tarry’s charge wore blinkers on that occasion but will race without the headgear this time around in her first go at the extended distance over which she should improve.
Lerena (Melech) and Fourie (Pistol Pete) hold the aces in Race 7, the Grade 2 Senor Santa Stakes over 1160m and there’s little to choose between the runners on their Grade 1 meeting in the Computaform Sprint over 1000m.
However, Peter-trained Pistol Pete is 1.5kg better off with his familiar foe and that should give Fourie’s mount the advantage.
Clive Robinson
