Richard Fourie was given a bottle of champagne in the winner’s enclosure after Saturday’s Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge having  brought home the Mike de Kock-trained Australian-bred four-year-old gelding Al Muthana (Deep Field).

 

However, on his way back to the jockey’s room he handed the bubbly as a gift to Gavin Govender and explained, “He’s my number one supporter and my best friend in KZN. We’ve been friends for 21 years.”

 

Fourie would have had a lot to celebrate as he had just equalled Jeff Lloyd’s 2006/2007 return of seven Grade 1s in a season.

 

It is not known whether that is officially the record, but it is the highest return in recent times and probably is the record.

 

Lloyd had gathered his seven by as early as March 3 that season, his seventh being in the SA Classic on the Weiho Marwing-trained Divine Jury. At that stage he had ridden an incredible 54% of the Grade 1s staged that term. However, he failed to add another one in the remaining five months.  

 

Fourie has the intention of breaking the record, but did not want to try and identify where number eight would come from.

 

He said, “Whichever one comes first and if I’m on the right horse at the right time.”