Rachel Venniker knows See It Again better than anybody as she does most of the work on him. (Candiese Lenferna Photography)
Rachel Venniker will replace injured Piere Strydom on See It Again in Saturday’s prestigious L’Ormarins King’s Plate.
Raymond “Super Sub” Danielson will replace injured Calvin Habib on the Betway Summer Cup winner Atticus Finch.
Venniker has ridden the Twice Over gelding See It Again six times for three wins, including a Listed victory, and knows the five-year-old better than anybody else as she does the work riding on him when he is at home in KZN.
However, her ride on him in a Pinnacle event over 1600m at Hollywoodbets Greyville on November 3, his penultimate start, which he won, was actually her first race ride on him since WSB Met day on January 28, 2023.
Strydom then took over and at odds of 50/1 won the Gr 1 Splashout Cape Derby in his first ride on him.
He thus kept the ride and added the Gr 1 Daily News 20000, the Gr 2 WSB Green Point Stakes and one other win together with a plethora of Gr 1 places, including three Gr 1 seconds.
It will be a hard act for Veniker to follow, but the big horse has a fine chance on Saturday as it will be his third run after gelding and unlike last year, when finishing second, he will not be facing any miler as good as Charles Dickens. See It Again was in fact thought by the connections to have performed below par in last season’s King’s Plate, so he could well be the one to beat if producing his best.
On the downside, he travelled up to Johannesburg for the Betway Summer Cup and then down to Cape Town and long journeys do often take a bit out of a horse.
Raymond Danielson earned the name “Super Sub” when often winning on chance big race rides or on yard second strings.
Atticus Finch is 5kg under sufferance with the best weighted See It Again, but has drawn well in the L’Ormarins King’s Plate and is on the up. He is a relatively lightly raced five-year-old with just 18 starts and the Master Of My Fate gelding could be the dark horse.
In other jockey news Anthony Andrews has explained why he will not be aboard Red Palace in the Gr 1 Cartier Paddock Stakes. He is out for four months after requiring a plate and six screws to be inserted into his heel on Saturday morning after a freak accident. Craig Zackey will be riding Red Palace, who has his first start for Dean Kannemeyer after a dispersal sale dissolving a partnership saw Anthony’s parents Terry and Annabel Andrew retaining their shares together with Mr H G & Mrs N S C Breydenbach.
