Richard Fourie’s record-breaking 377 wins was the highlight of the 2023/2024 racing season and was an iconic sporting achievement. His record-breaking 335th win on Double Grand Slam was fittingly in a Gr 2 and the winner was part-owned by the SA sporting icon Gary Player and amazingly enough his 377th and final win on Dave The King was in a Gr 1 and the winner was both part-owned and bred by Gary Player. (Candiese Lenferna Photography)
Interesting Call By Fourie To Remain In SA For Another Season
David Mollett
As he launches his fishing line into the ocean (possibly on a new boat courtesy of Hollywoodbets), new champion, Richard David Fourie, may ponder whether he’s made the right decision to stay in South Africa for another season.
Of course, racing fans will be delighted. They have made money by backing the Gauteng-born rider and saw the previous champion, Warren Kennedy, depart for New Zealand.
Turf Talk have kept us up to date with the Fourie “barometer” and not many could have predicted that he would finish some 50 winners ahead of Anthony Delpech’s record. I was in the camp of Robert Bloomberg in thinking that the Hollywood money was safe, but we failed to factor the importance of his frequent trips to the Eastern Cape.
Fourie has set a new record for that province and he knows he owes a huge vote of thanks to trainer Alan Greeff. You can’t win a championship without the right horses and Greeff has supplied them week after week.
Full marks also to Fourie’s agent, Ken Nicol, who has had health issues, but his studying of form has resulted in a lot of winners.
Fourie presumably follows what’s happening in other sports and he may have read that Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz got R2,7 million pounds (R62m) for winning Wimbledon and that South African Thirston Lawrence banked $876 000 (R16 million) for finishing fourth even in the Open Championship at Royal Troon.
His mounts this term have earned over R44,612,768.75 so – say he gets 10% of that (R4,461,276) – added to his riding fees and the Hollywoodbets R1 million and it means life is sweet for him and his family. Yet he will realise it is miles inferior to what Lawrence earned at one championship.
So what were the alternatives for the next 12 months? Many SA riders go the Hong Kong route and Fourie knows the two tracks there well having ridden 34 winners on his first visit to the former British colony.
Interestingly, in an interview some years ago, Fourie said his aim was “to win the SA championship and ride in Japan.”
The first objective has been achieved and Japan is an interesting call as the prizemoney for jockeys must be good as Ryan Moore is a frequent visitor to the country.
What Fourie has to factor in is his age. He’s 38 years old so 17 years older than tennis star, Carlos Alcaraz, so decisions now are crucial.
Could America – and taking on Frankie Dettori – be a future option? UK jumps jockey, Stephen Mulqueen, decided to relocate there and recently told the Racing Post that “financially, it’s probably a no-brainer.”
In the whole excitement over Fourie’s achievement, one factor bugs me. How on earth did the NHA allow him to take a two-week suspension when it suited him? The ban came a while ago so – even with an appeal – it should have been determined within a week or two.
Turf Talk editor, David Thiselton, pointed out inquiries are heard on the same day as the incident in, for example, New Zealand, and this led to Warren Kennedy missing the big Boxing Day meeting (there is a ten day deferment there and it was probably being used to the SA system that saw him requesting the charge be heard on December 16 instead of the day of the incident as the ten day deferment would then have allowed him to ride in the Boxing day meeting – they did not allow this and went ahead with the hearing on the 15th).
S’manga Khumalo has picked up a two-week suspension for excessive use of the stick in the Hollywoodbets Durban July – he could turn around to the stipendiary board and declare “you know what, gentlemen, I’m fancying a bit of a holiday at Christmas, so I’ll take it then.”
In the more immediate future, Cape Racing will be hosting the Equus Awards on August 15 for the first time and the biggest certainty is a standing ovation for Richard Fourie. As far as “Horse-of-the-Year” is concerned, that award is likely to go to one of two Mike De Kock inmates, Gimme A Nother or Dave The King. Some of their wins were simply awesome and further emphasised the talent of our best-known trainer.
So – if Mr Fourie was the number one success story of the 2023/24 campaign, which was the second most important occurrence in the sport? No doubt about it in my book – the resurgence of the breeding industry. Suddenly there’s a spring in the step of breeders countrywide.
It is worth recalling the figures of the two big BSA sales – the National Yearling Sale in April and the KZN Sale in July.
National Yearling Sale:
2023: Aggregate R154m. Average R442 672
2024: Aggregate R200,1m. Average R581 948
I spoke to BSA’s Michael Holmes prior to the April sale and he felt “nervous” about the outcome. He needn’t have been as he had his excellent team covering all bases to ensure the event was a success.
There is no legislation in SA obliging employers to pay their employees a bonus, but surely the BSA top brass will have recognized that Holmes and his team pulled off a victory similar to Manchester City boss, Pep Guardiola, in the Premier League last season.
KZN Sale:
2023: Aggregate 27,1m. Average R184 354.
2024 Aggregate 39m. Average R214 698
After studying the catalogue – not many well-related lots – I thought this was a sale Holmes had reason to be nervous about. Wow! was I way off the mark. The bids came thick and fast and – like Germiston in April – most breeders were smiling.
The highest price in 2023 was R750 000 but the determination of one of KZN’s best-known owners, Mary Liley, saw that price bettered by R1,15m. She went to R1,9 million to secure the Klawervlei Stud (as agent) offering of the well-named Gimmethegreenlight filly, Lovecomesknocking. Pleasing for this writer as they are the kind sponsors of this column.
I would estimate I have been writing about Mary Liley, co-owner with Robert Bloomberg of Sunday’s winner King Of The Gauls, for more than four decades (we have both been in the game a long time!) and I would describe her as a lady who has the combination of vivaciousness and dignity.
If her purchase comes knocking at the door of a Gr 1 race which hopefully she will, it will be just reward for a lady who has unflinchingly supported the sport for many years.
