Blaine Marx-Jacobson wins the 7th on the Tony Peter-trained Komati River at the Vaal today and consequently moves into the lead in the Apprentice Championship (JC Photos)
If there had been betting on the Apprentice Championship Blaine Marx-Jacobson would likely have been a 100/1 shot at the beginning of February as he had mustered a paltry three wins from 97 rides this season by that stage and was going along at a strike rate of at 3.09%.
The two leaders at that stage were Mxolisi Mbutho and Girish Samo-Burthia, who were both on 21 wins at respective strike rates of 9.68% and 12.73%.
Yet just seven weeks later Marx-Jacobson has taken the lead on 28 wins in the season at a strike rate of 12.79% with Mbuto on 27 wins at 8.41%.
Damyan Pillay also looks to be improving and is on 23 wins at 10.95%.
Samo Burthia is on 22 wins at 11.06%.
Dezahn Louw and Bavish Soodoo are still in contention on 21 wins apiece at 8.50% and 12.21% respectively.
However, Marx-Jacobson is the man with the momentum.
From February 1 until today he has had 25 wins at a strike rate of 20.49%.
In best in any profession are usually those who take to it like a duck to water, but there is the other type who through a combination of hard work and perseverance just one day have it all “click” into place.
Both types likely have the natural ability, it just takes the latter type a touch longer to find their feet.
In fact Marx-Jacobson won on his debut ride and was at the time widely praised for his great natural seat and he was identified as one who looked to have the potential to become a top jockey.
A slow start to his jockeyship career puts him in good company, including with two of South Africa’s greatest, Jeff Lloyd and Piere Strydom.
Lloyd had only 22 rides in his first six months of race-riding and accumulated six places without a win.
Strydom took 56 rides to have his first winner.
However, when it clicked with those two greats they went into overdrive and both became South African Champion Apprentices, before their glittering careers as fully fledged jockeys began.
Marx-Jacobson looks to be following in their footsteps at present and in fact looks to have probably copied Piere Strydom’s style i.e. he is very still in the saddle and has a straight back while driving with the arms.
The style is coupled with his fine natural balance, which was one of Striker’s key assets.
Marx-Jacobson will probably find it easier to keep his current momentum going than he had before, because he has attracted such attention that he is getting a lot of rides per meeting and is landing good rides too.
