Title-chasing Gavin Lerena and reigning champion Richard Fourie are jockeys at the top of their game and riding full of confidence, as they continue to hunt down National Jockeys’ log-leader Craig Zackey in their bid to for 2024/25 riding honours.
Fourie (196) rode five winners in three days, across two meetings at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth last week, which saw Zackey’s (202) lead trimmed to six atop the jockey’s standings, while Lerena (188) booted home four winners over the same period to stay within touching distance of the leading pair.
The latter’s quest to reclaim the title he last won 10 years ago – before going on to win the Longines’ International Jockeys’ Challenge at Happy Valley in Kong the same year – will likely be ramped up at the 10-race fixture on the Standside track at Turffontein on Sunday 11 May. And given his competitive book of rides throughout the meeting, Lerena will likely take another bite out of the current deficit.
He should strike aboard Tony Peter-trained last-start winners The Ultimate King (Race 5) and classy Main Defender (Race 6), as well as Mount Pinatubo for trainer Johan Janse van Vuuren in Race 8.
Vercingetorix gelding The Ultimate King led from barrier to box on his reappearance as a gelding over 1700m last month and Peter’s charge needn’t improve much to follow up on his handicap debut over the slightly shorter 1600m.
Stablemate Main Defender was scratched at the start of the Grade 1 Horse Chestnut Stakes but atoned for that mishap by winning the 1400m Grade 2 Hawaii Stakes under Lerena six weeks ago, and returns to the scene of that victory off an unchanged mark for a Pinnacle Stakes event in Race 6.
On official ratings, despite carrying 62kg from gate No 13, Main Defender is weighted to win. Peter’s stable star has only once been beaten in six starts over the distance and, given the conditions of the race, Lerena’s mount is unlikely to taste defeat over a distance he enjoys.
Van Vuuren saddles a three-pronged attack in Race 8 over 1000m, but three-year-old Mount Pinatubo heads the stable’s charge. This Erupt gelding won his only outing over the distance at the same venue and, on the evidence of his 1100m comeback second to smart three-year-old speedster Buffalo Storm Cody, any improvement from Mount Pinatubo should suffice in a competitive sprint.
Clive Robinson
