Turf Talk
Richard Fourie has fallen slightly behind in his goal of reaching 300 wins for the season.
However, he believes his “purple patches” have not yet happened and he is aiming to ride “50 winners” in a month before the end of the season.
If he does achieve that it will break the South African record, which Fourie believes to be 47, held by twice SA Champion Jockey Gavin Lerena.
If Fourie keeps up his current rides per day rate and his current 19.60% wins to rides strike rate he will end the season on 299 wins.
However, he said, “I haven’t had my purple patches yet. I had 38 wins last month and I’m hoping to have 25 this month, but I’m going to get that 50. I want 50 winners in a month.”
He said getting the 50 in a month would have the effect of putting him way ahead of the projected goal and would thus give him some breathing space.
However, it should be remembered that at this stage last season Keagan de Melo was on the exact same number of wins, 117, that Richard is on now and he ended the season on 277.
On the other hand Richard was on 77 wins at this time last season, 40 behind Keagan, and ended up only 19 behind him on 258 without doing any serious title chasing.
Fourie reckoned his best month, where he would have a chance of getting that 50, would be in March.
He said, “March is normally a very powerful month. There is a lot of racing then, the weather is normally good and there are normally no cancellations.”
“We will get there”, he concluded about the 300 win chase.
Breaking Anthony Delpech’s record of 334 must also be a small thought in the back of his mind, even if he did say at the beginning of the season that it was an unrealistic target.
There is a R1 million bonus from Hollywoodbets to anybody who breaks that record.
A dream scenario would be if he is close to 334 at the end of the season and has the ride on the Mike de Kock-trained Trois Trois Quatre in the Gold Cup, because the latter is owned by Hollywoodbets and is named after the record, the words meaning 334 in French.
Fourie said he was managing the demands of a title chase okay.
He said, “After day six in a row you feel it and your body just needs a day’s break.”
“But, then you get a day’s break and you can do another six days!” he chuckled.
He continued, “It is the waiting for your flight when there is a delay that is probably the most tiring thing, but if everything falls into place it is beautiful.”
