The top moment of 2024 was undoubtedly when Richard Fourie passed the 334 wins record for a season held by Anthony Delpech and he fittingly did it in a Gr 2 feature on Double Grand Slam (Candiese Lenferna Photography)   

David Mollett

In New Zealand – currently the home of former champion jockey Warren Kennedy – another top rider, James McDonald, has hit the headlines after being nominated for that country’s “Sportsman-Of-The-Year” award.

No question, McDonald has had a big year. Nine Gr 1 wins including successful associations with top hoses Via Sistina and recent Hong Kong victor, Romantic Warrior, are proof of that.

It is fair to say that New Zealand is as rugby mad as South Africa so McDonald’s nomination is noteworthy as racing there isn’t nearly as important to sports fans.

Racing in SA has made great strides in the last 18 months yet – outside of the racing websites – there has been little recognition of our record-breaking jockey, Richard Fourie.

Fourie has simply outclassed his rivals as Manchester City used to do in previous seasons in the Premier League before their recent slump. Dont expect any similar loss of form by 38 year-old, Fourie.

At the end of the 2023/24 season, Fourie’s total of wins stood at the astonishing figure of 378. When he won on Double Grand Slam on 10 June at Hollywoodbets Greyville, he had bettered Anthony Delpech’s record of 334 wins – a record which had stood for 25 years.

It got me thinking that Fourie had to have a shout of at least getting a nomination for “Sportsman-Of-The-Year” – one fancies it is a record likely to stand for years.

Now 30 years ago – when I was racing editor of The Sunday Times (in those days they had two pages of racing now none) – top writers such as Syd Lerman (football), Colin Bryden (cricket) and Dan Retief (rugby) would be asked by sports editor Edward Griffiths if they had someone in their respective sports to put forward as a possible candidate for “Sportsman-Of-The-Year” – it was deemed an important event in the sporting calendar.

Upon googling “SA Sportsman-Of-The-Year”, I confess to being a little confused. It states that in May 2024, Eben Etzebeth was named “Sportsman-Of-The-Year” at the 2024 SA Sports awards. But there’s still seven months of the year remaining.

Then it states that – in October 2024 – Tatjane Smith and Donald Ramphadi were named Bestmed Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year. Again two months of the year still remaining.

Anyway, while I’m sure these ladies and gents were worthy winners, it’s clear racing still can’t get its foot in the door against rugby and football.

Now the intrguing question is this: who is going to win the 2024/25 jockeys championship?

My 6-1 voucher on Muzi Yeni looks like going the same way as my bet on Kamala Harris for the US Presidency. At the time of writing, Muzi was still sidelined.

So has World Sports Betting got it right in making Fourie the 7-10 favourite? Possibly, he’s still travelling to the Eastern Cape (very important), but only seems to be heading for KZN and Gauteng for their feature races.

This may open the door for either Gavin Lerena or Craig Zackey and – my first antepost punt in 2025 – is going to go on the former.

Amazingly – at the age of 39 – Gavin is riding as well as at any time in an already notable career, but to win the championship at the end of July he needs to find more mounts both in the Eastern Cape and the Cape.

Despite his Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas win, Gavin had only four mounts at last Sunday’s Merchants meeting.

He got on the board with the Lucinda Woodruff-trained My Archangel, but it always looked a tough ask for his Merchants mount, Seeking The Gold, who has enjoyed an excellent career but is now seven years old.

Craig Zackey boosted his title prospects with a four-timer at the Vaal on Christmas Eve and WSB quote him at 33-10 for his first championship win. He’s got the powerful Dean Kannemeyer stable behind him and interestngly – with Grant van Niekerk suspended – got four mounts for Justin Snaith on Merchants day.

On the awards front, it was a memorable year for breeder and golf legend, Gary Player, who bred “Horse-of-the-Year”, Dave The King. The Mike De Kock inmate provided some thrilling wins for Gary, Lindsay Ralphs and Larry Nestadt.

No question about “Filly-Of-The-Year” with Barend Botes doing an outstanding job saddling Quid Pro Quo, a daughter of Lance (by Jet Master), to six wins out of eight racecourse appearances.

Currently-sidelined, S’manga Khumalo, partnered Quid Pro Quo to four of those six wins and – for my money – the highlight was the filly’s victory in the Golden Slipper on Hollywoodbets Durban July day.