Royal Victory is pictured winning the Betway Summer Cup comfortably (JC Photos)

Royal Victory will be out to emulate Puerto Manzano by winning Saturday’s R2 million Gr 1 Premier’s Champions Challenge and thus completing the Betway Summer Cup/Premier’s double.

Puerto Manzano did that double last year and is also a participant in tomorrow’s weight for age 2000m event at the Champions Day meeting, which has ten races, including four Gr 1s, four Gr 2s and a Listed race.

Royal Victory has always displayed class and proved the bookmakers hopelessly wrong in the Summer Cup.

Some firms still had him out at 80/1 after the announcement of the final field and he romped home by 2,25 lengths despite jumping from draw 13.

The Nathan Kotzen-trained four-year-old Pathfork gelding carried bottom weight in that race and this is now a weight for age race, but he is now drawn three.

He also performed better in the Summer Cup than any of the other Premier’s Champions Challenge contenders with the exception of Puerto Manzano.

He beat the latter by 4,60 lengths, but was receiving 6kg.

So on paper Puerto Manzano has a fine chance of landing his third Gr 1 over the course and distance.

Puerto Manzano has a good draw of five, but does have to bounce back from a 14,75 length beating in the Gr 1 Wilgerbosdrift HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes over 1600m. Last year he was beaten 12,50 lengths two runs before the Champions Challenge in the Hawaii Stakes over 1400m, so perhaps not too much should be read into his preparation runs over too sharp distances.

He takes a while to get going which is why he loves the Standside’s galloping 2000m trip with its long straight.

Dave The King has settled down with gelding and if able to stay in the hands of Piere Strydom, rather than pulling, he will be dangerous from pole position. He is the most likely pacemaker.

Cousin Casey has had a perfect preparation and is bred for this trip. He has had terrible luck with draws and has another wide one. He is capable of turning it on from off the pace, but some have questioned whether being an entire is effecting him because he has not been as perfectly relaxed as he was a two-year-old in some of his races.

Son Of Raj ran a cracking fifth in the Horse Chestnut and will relish the step up in trip.

Safe Passage can never be discounted as he has a lot of class, although he has become unreliable.

Those are the ones who make most appeal for the Pick 6.

Zeus, who prefers further, could also be considered as he was beaten only 2,40 lengths in the Summer Cup, but he does face Royal Victory on the same terms.

Winchester Mansion is the Hollwyoodbets July winner, but hasn’t run since disappointing in the Summer Cup, although he is now 4kg better off for a 4,20 length beating.

Aragosta is not far off the best, while Future Pearl would prefer further but does have the Tarry factor.

Litigation also has the Tarry factor. He is in fine form, but is probably just below Gr 1 weight for age class.

Meridius has a fine turn of foot and the Peter yard, who also train the outsider Street Art, have caused a big upset in this race before.

The meeting banker looks to be Gimme A Nother in the Gr 1 TAB Empress Club Stakes over 1600m. It will be a surprise if she doesn’t increase her unbeaten run to seven races. The Tony Peter-trained Bavarian Beauty is a Gr 1 winner who has shown hints of top class ability and the same can be said for Mrs Geriatrix, so those two could be the ones to pick up the pieces if the long odds on favourite fluffs her lines.

Dyce and Thunderstruck are both drawn on the favourable standside in the Gr 1 Jonsson Workwear Computaform Sprint and should fight it out. The Peter-trained Rulership and Golden Sickle could make their presence felt, although the latter has a low draw, while Iphiko has a high draw and a lot of pace so could be dangerous.

In the Gr 1 SA Derby Marauding Horse has impressed with his continual progression and will relish the distance. He  should fight it out with the big-hearted Gr 1 SA Classis winner Purple Pitcher. Mondial has been looking for this trip, so is one of the dark horses. Pure Predaror, Viva Brazil and Thunee Player are also interesting runners capable of progressiing over this trip.

In the Gr 2 Wilgerbosdrift Bridget Oppenheimer SA Oaks Silver Sancturuary will be hard to beat. Frances Ethel has a hard task on official merit ratings, but is on the up. Let’s Go Now is improving all the time and look for an improved run from My Soul Mate. Beating Wings could also earn.

The Gr 2 TAB Hawaii Stakes looks wide open beyond Sandringham Summit, who will have to be below his best not to win. Unzen loves the 1400m trip as does pole position-drawn-White Pearl and it will also be right up the alley of the classy Lucky Lad. Texas Red’s from is looking strong too.

Tony Peter should win the Gr 2 TAB SA Nursery and Gr 2 Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Nursery with the unbeaten pair Pistol Pete and Almond Sea.

The Listed 4Racing Caradoc Gold Cup over 2850m is open but Breeze Over is a big staying type who is drawn in pole and carrying just 50kg should go close.

The meeting kicks off with a Maiden over 1160m and the one to beat considering form and draws could be So Seductive.

Sandringham Summit will be bankered by some in the Gr 2 TAB Hawaii Stakes (JC Photos)

Racing Today’s Vicky Lerena spoke to trainer David Nieuwenhuizen about the favourite for the Gr 2 TAB Hawaii Stakes over 1400m, the three-year-old merit rated-123 Gimmethegreenlight colt Sandringham Summit.

The colt was shown to be full of beans in video footage of him enjoyong himself with his groom in a paddock.

David said, “He won the Gr 1 Premier’s Champion Stakes very impressively and we obviously thought highly of him after that win, it was a great race to win. A lot of the horses from that race have not gone on with it, but he has gone on with it and has strengthened up.

We’re taking him down to the Durban season again a year later and I think he’s going to do really well for himself.

He’s strengthened up but being a colt he’s got slightly more difficult as well, but he’s maturing really nicely and it’s now time to go up against open company.

We’re confident for Saturday but we are coming back down from 1800m to 1400m and he’s one of the few horses who is coming down in distance.

Obviously it makes it more difficult, the other guys are more sprinters going towards a mile, we’re coming back in distance so it makes it tougher to freshen him up again.

Four Hundred metres is quite a bit further in trip, but he’s a really good horse so we expect him to do really, really well.

The horse I think who will peak is Lucky Lad and we’re giving a bit of weight to one or two others.

There are three three-year-olds in  the race and they have to step it up now, it’s open company, but I’m pretty sure he can equip himself well.

He pulled up very well after the SA Classic, he actually pulled up better than when he won so well the previous time.

Gavin knows him and has learnt a lot of his little traits that he carries.

In the Classic we had to go and fetch and there was no horse to travel through with us, so he had a lot of hard work to do from far off the pace.

The pace is going to be on over 1400m and he will have to pick it up quite early.”

Montien is weighted to win the Gr 3 Variety Club Mile (Picture: Wayne Marks)

Graeme Hawkins (Gold Circle)

The R350 000 Variety Club Mile (Gr 3), first leg of the well-established Cape Winter Series, takes pride of place on a 9-race programme at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth tomorrow and pinpointing the likely winner is no easy task. All of Montien, Rascallion and Pacaya come back fresh following their runs in the WSB Cape Met at the end of January where Rascallion fared best of the trio when finishing second behind Double Superlative.

However 1600m is on the sharp side for Rascallion and it may prove better to side with Montien. The Piet Botha-trained son of Louis The King has previously won first-up from a break and three of his four victories have been recorded over this trip. He has matured very nicely as a 4yo and is a top class race horse in his own right. Nicely drawn in Gate 3, with regular pilot Anthony Andrews in the saddle, Montien should give us an excellent run for our money.

Despite being a little on the sharp side we can expect a forward run from Rascallion while Pacaya has all the class and ability to win a race of this nature. Two years ago he finished fourth in this race behind Gem King but his last gasp victory in the Jet Master Stakes last season makes him very much a livewire here. He pulled up distressed in the WSB Met but his form prior to that was solid and he has obviously recovered sufficiently from his setback last time to take his chances here.

Of those that have raced more recently, Wecangoallnight, Future Prince and Port Louis make most appeal but they will be hard pressed to lower the colours of Montien, Rascallion or Pacaya if these classy geldings return anywhere near their best.

The R200 000 Sweet Chestnut Stakes (Listed) for fillies and mares over 1400m is the supporting feature and Enemy Territory (Ire) stands out as the best handicapped filly in the race. The daughter of Canford Cliffs reeled off a hat trick of wins between August and November last year and her subsequent three unplaced runs have all been in high quality Feature races. She could certainly bounce back to best form here and warrants utmost respect in a very competitive line-up in which most of the 10-strong field have winning claims.

The consistent Fun Zone is well weighted here and could turn the form around with all of Summer Lily, Montelena and Siddeley. She also holds My Flower Fate on past form and the Candice Bass-Robinson trained daughter of Rafeef could prove to be the value in the race. That being said, Princess Izzy, drawn in pole position, Summer Lily, Siddeley and Montelena all come into the reckoning with big chances and must be considered for Jackpot and Pick 6 permutations. Kyalami Girl has her first run around the turn and it will be interesting to see how she goes. Not an easy race!

Fittingly, Cape Racing has named the second and third races in honour of the Hassen Adams and Rodney Dunn, both of whom passed away recently. They made a huge impact on our sport over many years and have left a lasting legacy for horse racing and thoroughbred breeding. Mauritius Kestrel, beaten a nose last time, can win the second race and opening leg of the Bipot while Cliff Swallow, runner-up in his last two starts, looks the part in the third race and first leg of the Place Accumulator.

The opening leg of the Pick 6, an Open Maiden over 1600m, could turn out to be a match race between Etoillefillante and Tsunami Warning but the fifth race, a Class 4 Handicap over 1400m, looks wide open and presents something of a headache for exotic-bet players. Perhaps the consistent and distance suited Oliver, recent maiden winner Hoodia, All About Ronnie, the none-too-reliable Bardolino and Slurricane make up a viable short list but an upset cannot be ruled out.

The Andre Nel / Corne Orffer partnership were in good form during the week and they could strike with Axl in the eighth race, a Class 3 Handicap over 1200m. He is weighted to turn the tables on Meu Capitano who only collared Axl in the last few strides four weeks ago. Gimmelightning and All About Al also warrant respect in another very competitive heat.

The race meeting closes out with a lowly Class 5 Handicap over 1200m and Beneath The Moon gets the opportunity to exact revenge after being demoted in the board room last time. But a good thing she is not, and all of Shifting Path, Seeking Peace, Royal Lytham and Country Time have the form to win in this class of race.

Sahara Cat (closest) had to make up a length within the last 100m after being overtaken in a 1000m event and Richard Fourie managed to get her to battle back and win on the line. (Picture: Wayne Marks)

Richard Fourie’s ride on the Vaughan Marshall-trained Sahara Cat over 1000m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on March 5 has been voted the Emperor’s Palace Ride Of The Month.

The first correct voter to be drawn out of the hat in the draw for the prize was Dhiresh Dasrath.

He wins:

1 x Night stay at Graceland for 2 including breakfast
1 x round of golf for 2
1 x Dinner Voucher

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE ABOUT GRACELAND’S STAY AND PLAY GOLF PACKAGES

Interestingly, the Gold Circle ride of the month was also Fourie’s ride on Sahara Cat, whom he got home after looking beaten.

Cold Shine (far side) finished second to the smart Roman Agent in the Non-Black Type Trippi Stakes over 1000m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth and that form gives him a strong chance in the second at Hollywoodbets Scottsville on Sunday (Picture: Wayne Marks)

Andrew Harrison (Gold Circle)

As Champions Season draws closer – only a month away – trainers start stepping out their more forward youngsters. That doesn’t make it easy for punters who will have to navigate their way through the first two races at Hollywoodbets Scottsville on Sunday where both the card openers are laced with debutantes. Add to that a prediction of rain and the picture gets even more muddy.

Judging by the trainer’s first-timer comments in the first, none are seriously fancied but experience does count for a lot and of the two that have run it could be a toss-up between Take Note and Dashing Duchess who both made fair debuts. But it should pay to keep an eye on the betting.

In the second, Peter Muscutt could have the answer in Cold Shine. The trip to Cape Town was obviously a tilt at the lucrative stakes race but after a smart debut effort all went awry. He does take on winner’s here but is expected to come on enough to win this and could have a little too much class.

The opposition includes Ibhele who made a winning debut for Louis Goosen and was not too far back first run back from a lengthy break and is one to watch in the betting. Grovefield was a comfortable winner second time out and that form has panned out well with the second horse having come out a winner. Chinaberry has the benefit of experience on this course but Richard Fourie has jumped ship to partner Cold Shine which may be an indication of his chances.

Gorgeous Girl could be one of the better bets on the card as she has made steady improvement and looks primed for this in what stacks up into a modest line-up in the third. Valli Gal is way better than her last effort on the poly where she had the worst of the draw. The switch to the turf from a favourable gate can see her home. Floral Fantasy is lightly raced and has made steady improvement. She was running on well in a maiden handicap last run on the poly and can feature.

The fourth is a tricky handicap. Connoisseur and Avro Prince were recent maiden winners. Connoisseur led a modest maiden field a merry dance when winning his maiden but has been improving all the while and can follow up. Fourie stays aboard Garth Puller’s runner Avro Prince after winning a six-furlong sprint. The step up to a mile may be what the gelding is looking for.

The fifth is a wide open handicap. Goosen bought Oh So Squishy on spec and although she has the worst of the draw and her last effort on the poly was a modest, on her previous outing on the turf she was touched off over course and distance and that Fourie is booked to ride the inference is obvious. The big mare Aquae Sulis is never far back and has dropped three pounds in the handicap. Add to that the 1.5kg apprentice claim and she looks to have a strong chance.

The sixth is another difficult handicap but the Michael Roberts-trained Fabulous is way better than her last effort where she had the worst of the draw. She goes well this trip and has her third run after a break. Bosnay has her first run for a new stable. She has been something of an under achiever and the change of routine could see her put her best foot forward. African Folklore has steady form in useful company and the step up in trip should suit while Mvulanzana was narrowly beaten last start over shorter but her best recent effort has been on the poly. Blue Horizon is never far back but showed up well first run out of the maidens and has a light weight even though she steps up in class.

In the seventh, Bless Me Fred is over his best course and distance and with Rachel Venniker sweating down to 52kg this must be ‘game on’. Barzelona has been struggling in smart company of late and should make a big impression in this company. Philispeil loves this course and distance and with only 52kg to shoulder he could upstage his stable companion. King Of The Gauls is smart but he should find this trip on the sharp side. But class often prevails and it could pay to follow his progress leading into Champions Season.

The last is a tough handicap to round off the afternoon so go wide in the exotics. However, Alyson Wright may hold the key. El Draque was not far back to stronger last run and is down in class with a useful 4kg claimer aboard. This could be the right recipe. Stable companion Intrepid won well in first time blinkers and can follow up while Gimmearainbow has been improving all the time and a drop in the ratings should see him competitive again. Happy Wanderer is always dangerous and is over his best course and distance.

Rachel King after winning the G1 Sydney Cup on Knights Order. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)

Back in 2011 when the legends among Mauritius racing fans, Glen Hatt and Karl Neisius, took part in an international jockeys challenge the side show was a ladies race under the banner of Fegentri, in which a group of riders take part in a series which has just one race in each of the many countries visited.

One of the lady riders was tiny young Rachel King.

The Fegentri series looked to be a fun tour for the participants.

However, the riders were not taken too seriously by racing pundits.

Yet just under seven years later Rachel King won a Gr 1 race in Australia.

She has a tally of five Gr 1 wins on her CV today, including two this season, and currently lies in 12th place on the Sydney metro premiership.

On Saturday she rides in the lucrative Aus$4 million The Star Doncaster Mile at Randwick.

She is aboard the Ciaron Maher-trained Written Tycoon three-year-old colt Southport Tycoon, who comes off a win the Gr 1 Howden Australia Guineas at Flemington on March 2, where he was ridden by another top female jockey, Jamie Kah.

However, Kah has jumped off Southport Tycoon for the Doncaster Mile to ride the stablemate Another Wil, who is the favourite.

Another Wil is paying Aus$3.70 on the Tote and Southport Tycoon is paying Aus$17.

Both stablemates have to overcome wide  draws.

Other, interesting runners in the race from a SA perspective are Celestial Legend, a grandson of SA-bred National Assembly cha,pion sprinter, National Colour, Lindwermann, who will be ridden by Zac Lloyd, the star in the making son of Jeff Lloyd, while reserve runner Navajo Peak is trained by David Payne.

They jump at 07H35 SA Time on Saturday

However, to get back to the theme of this article below is an article written in 2022 which describes Rachel King’s unsusual and inspiring path to where she is today:

Rachel King’s dream took her the long road less travelled

David Morgan (asianracingreport.com)

The English rider has risen from the amateur ranks at home to become an established figure in the top ten of the ultra-tough Sydney premiership.

23 September 2022

Rachel King was already spent when Killultagh Thunder reached the second-last fence; fatigue strained her weakening muscles. She was no help at all when the ten-year-old gelding lifted his feet clumsily from the winter-soft ground. The official outcome after she tasted the County Cork turf was ‘unseated’.

It was King’s first race ride, on a horse trained by the former top jump jockey Adrian Maguire. She and her father Chris – a point-to-point trainer – had ridden alongside Maguire with the Old Berks Hunt before a broken neck ended his professional riding career.

“Adrian had to find a saddle from someone to borrow and it was so heavy I couldn’t carry it; it felt like it was about five or six stone (31 to 38 kilograms), or something ridiculous,” the diminutive King recalls of that November day in Ireland.

There was no female changing room, so the back of a lorry had to do; and there were no running rails either, not at Boulta point-to-point, they raced around straw bales. But it was an exhilarating high-point for the 16-year-old, nonetheless.

“The adrenaline was definitely pumping,” she adds.

That was the world King knew and loved. The thrill of galloping and jumping fences – National Hunt racing, point-to-points, hunting, pony club – the bracing freshness of riding out on a winter morning in England’s Home Counties.

That foray at Boulta was a first beginning in a race-riding quest that has stumbled and stalled, had twists and false dawns, and then risen from an unexpected bright new beginning a long way from an Irish field, and the tiny Oxfordshire village of Waterperry where she spent her youth.

The adrenaline was pumping just the same 12 years later when King angled wide off the Randwick home turn and the Sydney crowd, thousands in number, raised the volume as she advanced aboard her mount, Maid Of Heaven in the Spring Champion Stakes.

She was compact, balanced, her 50-kilogram frame hard-fit and pushing with full might towards the winning post; the filly was responding, stretching out despite the exertion and there was no obstacle to jump this time, nothing else but a first Group 1 victory to be had as Maid Of Heaven dipped her head on the line to nick the verdict.

At the age of 28 King was in her second full campaign after a three-season apprenticeship in Australia and had ended the previous term ninth in the Sydney metropolitan premiership.

“Sydney is one of the toughest jockeys’ rooms around the world,” says Mark Newnham, Maid Of Heaven’s trainer and a long-time King supporter. “Rachel is very consistent in that environment and she’s considered as a very good jockey.”

For the past three seasons, King, now 32, has placed top ten in the Sydney standings and in 2020-21 she was third with 64 wins and prize money of AU$8.2 million: that placed her ahead of world-class riders Nash Rawiller, Hugh Bowman and Kerrin McEvoy and behind only Tommy Berry and the outstanding champion James McDonald.

“When you look at the class you’re riding with, it’s unbelievable and it just keeps getting better, it’s very tough but it’s a privilege,” she says unassumingly.

An uncommon route

Those who know King speak of her toughness, horsemanship and work ethic, as well as a personable character, but most of all her determination to achieve. Yet her route to Group 1 regular and Sydney staple was anything but direct.

She gained school holiday experience at Mick Channon’s stable, rode as an amateur for Alan King, had a short-lived apprenticeship with Mark Usher, went to Clive Cox as stable secretary and amateur rider, and was also a stud secretary for a time at Hillwood Stud. After landing in Australia, initially for two months, to see what horizons might open up there, she gained experience with James and Bart Cummings and then on to Gai Waterhouse where her determination eventually paid off.

“The reason I switched around a bit was because I probably changed my mind a few times about what I really wanted,” she says in an accent that retains only hints of its English origin.

“I knew deep down I always wanted to ride and that was it, but it was just…it was a bit slow to get going. Riding as an amateur wasn’t really fulfilling that riding passion, and that’s why I ended up doing a few other things. But every time I did something else, I came back to race riding.”

At Barbury Castle, the stables of Alan King, they still refer to her as ‘Little Rachel’.

“My wife is Rachel as well and some people thought she was my daughter; someone even asked me once if she was my granddaughter; I’m not sure how old they thought I was?” recalls Alan King, who made his name with top jumps horses but is now best known for the Group 1 stayer Trueshan, ridden so famously by Hollie Doyle.

King the trainer remembers King the rider being ‘determined’ to become a jump jockey when she arrived at his dual-code establishment. The trainer was cautious about encouraging her down that route but warmed to the idea.

“He really put a lot of trust in me because he hadn’t put a girl on before; it wasn’t really his thing back then,” she says. “Things have changed so much now, with Hollie Doyle riding for him and having great success, and I even rode over jumps for him, which I never thought would happen.

“I did the work and had to prove at home that I was capable but he gave me the chance to prove myself. He didn’t just not let me have a go, he was happy for me to have a go and try and see what I could do.”

However, a decade and more before Rachael Blackmore proved beyond doubt that female riders can match the men in jumps races, Alan King felt that his eager amateur should go down the flat route.

“She was tiny and very light so it was probably the right thing to do,” he says.

That view was echoed by Usher who took her on as an apprentice at his Lambourn stables.

“The physical make-up made her an obvious choice to be an apprentice but her background and her mental make-up was more geared towards jumping, so it took a while, in my view, for the wheel to turn and the penny to drop, because that’s her tradition,” he says.

“But she was very accomplished from day one, and I honestly think that had she started earlier as an apprentice she’d have done much better in the UK. But then she might not have gone to Australia, it’s all ifs and mights.”

The apprenticeship did not work out: King had one winner in six months and believes in hindsight that starting during the winter months of 2009-10 was a mistake on her part. Frustrated, she moved on and arrived at the Cox stable to work in the office but also rode a couple of lots on the gallops each day and resumed her amateur career.

“She was already an extremely talented horsewoman, she was able to translate a lot of the National Hunt skill she had, so she was a little bit of a secret weapon for us as an amateur,” Cox says.

The Group 1-winning trainer provided a new outlook for King. Unlike at Usher’s middle of the road yard, the Cox stable had high-class thoroughbreds and riding them on the gallops ignited a spark in the hitherto reluctant flat jockey.

“That was the first time I sat on really nice flat horses and that was what made me more determined than ever that this was what I wanted to do,” she reflects. “I was enjoying it and getting that buzz of riding good horses definitely pushed me in this direction.”

Australia and beyond

When King delivered Maid Of Heaven on the line in October 2018 it was not just a first Group 1 win for her, it was also a first for Newnham. The two connected at the famous Tulloch Lodge Stables when Newnham was assistant trainer to Waterhouse and King was trying to convince her new boss to give her a go as an apprentice.

But Waterhouse had heard that King had been a stable secretary and that was what her organisation needed.

“I told her I didn’t come halfway around the world to do the same job I was doing at home,” says King.

Waterhouse was a hard nut to crack. She had King travel to the US with a horse, and gave her the responsibility of looking after her team in Queensland but there was no movement on the apprentice licence.

“That experience was probably great,” Rachel admits. “I learnt more about Australian racing, I learnt the rules, I met people, I rode a lot of trackwork for about 12 months and I got used to it all a bit more before I had the pressure of race riding.”

It was Newnham who stepped in to ensure King’s apprentice dream was realised before time ran out.

“She was pretty determined so I actually took her into Racing New South Wales and signed her apprentice papers on behalf of Gai,” he says.

“Having Rachel travel away with some of those horses was good for the stable, you could rely on her and trust what she was going to do while she was away. She looked after some very good horses during her two or three-month period in Queensland and we had very good results, so what we were getting her to do was working very well for Gai’s stable. I suppose getting her apprenticeship started was going to curtail that.”

Once the licence was granted, though, the Waterhouse stable supported her and still does. Of her 525 career wins, 55 have been on Tulloch Lodge horses, including her second Group 1 winner, Knights Order, the horse she rode to win the Sydney Cup in April 2022.

After riding her first Australian winner, Run Cannon Run, at Tamworth in March 2015, she ended that term with 17 on the board; the next season she increased to 31 and then 88 as she progressed from country racing, through provincial, to the pinnacle of city racing.

While Doyle has raised the bar for female riders in Europe, that bar was already at a higher point in Australia when King arrived there, thanks to jockeys like Michelle Payne, Linda Meech, Kathy O’Hara and Clare Lindop, to the point that Newnham is not alone in viewing a jockey as a jockey, whether male or female.

“Rachel has the ability to get horses running freely for you, you can’t teach that. She’s got good hands, good balance and the rest is that indeterminable factor you see top jockeys with; it’s just something some jockeys have and you can’t put a finger on it,” he says.

The top ten in the Sydney jockeys’ room holds a wealth of international experience: Bowman, McEvoy, McDonald, Berry, Rawiller and Clark between them have ridden in Europe, the Middle East, and notably Hong Kong and Japan. King has not yet had that opportunity but is looking that way.

“I did have an offer to go to Japan on a three-month licence and I was keen to go then Covid happened. I would love to try to get to Japan, I feel the racing there is incredible, like it is in Hong Kong as well, and I’d love to experience that,” she says.

“Riding abroad is only going to further your skills and improve your career when you come back to Australia.”

As much as she loves her roots and her memories of point-to-point racing with fellow amateurs in fields from Boulta to Kingston Blount, bagging major races and continuing what she has established is her focus.

“I won’t be stopping any time soon,” she says firmly. “It took me a little bit longer to find this path and I’m going to get as much out of it as I can.”

The Gavin Smith-trained Zatara Magic (Rabada) won the Non-Black Type Glenair Trophy over 2800m under Keanan Steyn (Pauline Herman Photography)

S’Manga Khumalo rode a double for Kelly Mitchley on the Fairview turf today.

Gavin Smith also scored a double.

Khumalo is now on 89 wins for the season achieved at a strike rate of 16.01%.

Mitchley is on 49 wins at 10.10%.

Smith is on 93 wins at 12.09%.

Smith is six wins clear of Alan Greeff in the East Cape Trainers championship.

Fourie has scored 77 wins in the East Cape and is 35 clear of Khumalo(42 wins)  in the East Cape championship with Luyolo Mxothwa next best on 37.

Frankie Dettori wins the Gr 1 Santa Anita handicap on Newgate on March 3, his first Grade 1 win in the USA (Benoit Photos)

How many wins has Frankie Dettori had in the USA this year?

Dettori has had 26 wins at a strike rate of 18% in the USA this year and is in 24th place on the North American Jockeys log.

He had 29 wins last year at a strike rate of 15% having ridden in America both before and after the British flat season.

Last year he had had nine stakes wins (four Graded) in America and this year has had four stakes wins (three Graded).