The Glen Kotzen-trained William Longsword colt Commanding gives Richard Fourie his 300th win of the season at Hollywoodbets Scottsville on Sunday (Candiese Lenferna Photography)
Richard Fourie’s 300th winner of the season at Hollywoodbets Scottsville on Sunday was fittingly for Glen Kotzen as the latter also gave him the first Gr 1 winner of his career when Badger’s Gift won the Gr 1 Paddock Stakes on New Year’s day in 2007, at which time Richard was still an apprentice.
The Kotzen-trained William Longsword colt Commanding gave Fourie the all important 300th win, converting 7/10 odds by a commading three lengths.
Fouries’ chances of breaking Anthony Delpech’s record of 334 in a season were regarded as highly unlikely at the beginning of the season even by his reckoning and he had thus made it his “realistic goal” to ride 300 wins.
He reached the latter mark on Sunday with more than two months of the season remaining.
He now just needs to sstay safe and sound to win the R1 million bonus offered by Hollywoodbets to break Delpech’s record.
Fourie scored a treble at Sunday’s meeting to go to 302 wins for the season overall.
The second of those wins gave him his 100th win in KZN for the season.
In the winning interview after the 300th win, Fourie thanked the many who had helped him to reach the milestone.
“Thank you very much to Mr Kotzen and your team , it looks like our paths always cross at exactly the right time, and it is your horse who has made the target that myself and Ken Nichols set in the beginning of the season come true and we really appreciate that.”
“I have a lot of important people in my life to thank: first of all my kids, I’ve sacrificed a lot of time away from home, and obviously to my ex-wife Tatum for being patient and allowing me to achieve my dream and also to my partner Andrea for all the many times of me not being at home but still staying positive through it all. So thank you very much to them and all the support from all the trainers, all the owners and the guys behind the scenes doing all the hard work.”
“Even for the competitiveness in the jockey room, it’s nice, it’s good, it’s clean. There’s lots of warnings in the races, when you shift a little bit the guys shout. Five years ago the jockeys room was a different place, if you were gonna get time the guy would keep quiet. But now you know they’ll stand up, so it’s been good clean racing, but very competitive and I appreciate that from the boys in the jockey room. You know we’re technically family, we see each other every day, I think we see more of each other than we see of our family, so it’s been great all around.”
“I have to say also to the guys that drive me around, Gavin, thank you my man, all my drivers, all my friends in Joburg, and in PE as well, I got a driver there so I can rest in between. I really appreciate all the help and all the good messages that I’ve received throughout the season, so I’m glad we’ve got to 300 winners. Now it’s the chip in the pot we’ve spoken of between myself and Ken, so let’s get it done! To become part of the 300 club was what we dreamed of and wanted to work at, not many jocks have done it, so I’m just happy to be in that club. So this one was important to me and obviously now we’re going for Mr Delpech’s record, let’s hope we stay sound and safe and we can get there!”
The projected number of wins Richard will reach by the end of the season based on his current rides per day rate and his current strike rate for the sesson now stands at 276.
