Young jockeys can learn a lot from Piere “Striker” Strydom’s professionalism.
The U.K. is the centre of world racing and it is noticeable how important industrymen over there regard the going. It is a regular occurrence for horses to be scratched for unsuitable going. This does not really apply in South Africa, because the going is generally fast compared to the UK and wet going usually leads to an abandonement due to the different make up of the ground here.
However, UK jockeys generally walk the course before a meeting to try and find an advantage through going bias.
Walking the course is seldom practiced in SA, probably because the going bias usually fits a trend, but the going bias is definitely as big a factor here as it is in the UK.
Using the Vaal straight course as an example, the going trend is that if the outside rail is at zero then the best going is on the outside rail, whereas if the outside rail is in, usually by ten metres, then the most favourable going will be on the inside rail.
It is important for jockeys to know this.
Some punters would have been put off by Dyce’s last two draws, seven out of ten on the Turffontein Inside track over 1000m and three out of eight down the Vaal straight on a day in which the course was set up in a way that, by trends, favoured high draws.
The maestro Strydom was clearly more worried about the draw down the straight, which many would not be worried about as some perceive draws in straight races to all be fair.
In the Turffontein Inside race Striker merely sat on Dyce from the off knowing that he would be able to get cover on the outside train, because it is tough for outside drawn horses to get over to the inside rail over that course and distance. Dyce duly got a tow, despite being three wide, and Striker used the horse’s exceptional turn of foot to win by 0,75 lengths.
However, in the straight race on Tuesday Striker thought it worthwhile to use Dyce in the early stages to get over to the outside rail.
Once he had done so he gave him a breather and this time he won even more easily. Striker just had to let Dyce go in the closing stages to beat Cliff Hanger by two lengths.
This is just one example of Strydom’s tactical mastery, that has seen him silencing the social media critics (who think he is too old) by riding to a strike rate this season of a phenomenal 31.48%.
It would be expected that all connections of a runner know the going trends, but a recent case can be pointed to which says otherwise.
In a recent meeting the outside rail was ten metres in, meaning the inside rail would be advantageous by trends.
In the first two races the best horses in the race were drawn on the outside and two of them were good enough to win.
One of the vanquished jockeys. lets’s call him Joe Soap, had been drawn favourably low in one of those races but was beaten by two decent horses drawn high.
However, it was made clear in the next race down the straight that it was only the superiority of the horses in the first two races that had enabled them to win from high draws. The number one drawn horse never looked like losing the third race and won by a wide margin despite being double figure odds.
Joe Soap did not ride in that race … and he clearly did not watch it either.
He came out for the next race down the straight and from a favourable low draw, which would have attracted some punters to have a go on his horse, he continually switched the horse outward until he was on the very outside of the field! He duly ran unplaced and well beaten.
This rider had only remembered his previous ride on the day, where he had been beaten by higher drawn horses; he had ignored the trend and had also not watched the race in which he did not ride which would have told him the trend was holding up as usual. Or perhaps he did not even know the trend.
In another recent example an odds on favourite drawn one in the first race, on a day in which the course set up meant he had the best draw by trends, was switched all the way to the middle, possibly because high draws were favourable in the previous meeting, although with a different course set. The jockey thus handed the inside rail advantage to the number two drawn horse. The rider of that horse had done his homework as he stuck to the inside rail station and duly won comfortably, despite being on a horse who was at much bigger odds than the favourite.
Praise must also be given when its due and Louis Nhlapo needs to be singled out, although he would not fall into the young jockey category.
Louis has done his homework on the big nine-year-old Written In Stone, who has a huge stride and this often hampers him in the lower division races as he can become cramped.
It is noticeable that Louis gives Written In Stone as much room to use his big stride as possible, holding him back far enough if he is following a horse and sticking his nose into gaps whenever these is an option for more room.
In his second ride on the big horse he cliched Written In Stone’s first win for 1426 days. Louis has had five successive rides on Written In Stone and earned a cheque in every one of them, including an excellent third on Tuesday. He also looked after the nine-year-old in that race as according to the stipe report he felt him not striding out freely in the concluding stages and did not persevere riding him.
