Picture: The moment South Africa’s racing public has been waiting for (Chase Liebenberg Photography)
Richard Fourie has broken Anthony Delpech’s iconic 334-wins-in-a-South African-racing season record!
Fittingly the first person to congratulate him after returning to the parade ring aboard the Justin Snaith-trained Double Grand Slam was Anthony Delpech himself and also fitting is the Vercingetorix filly is part-owned by another SA sporting icon, Gary Player.
Double Grand Slam was regarded as the meeting banker and at odds of 5/10 in the Gr 2 East Coast Radio Tibouchina Stakes made it a treble for Fourie at the meeting and saw him reaching the magical 335 wins for the season mark.
The filly jumped from draw eight.
Richard took an early hold and placed her perfectly one out and one back behind last year’s winner Humdinger.
In the straight she had na clear run down the middle and wound up into full stride before pulling away to beat Humdinger by 1,20 lengths.
The crowd roared her home and the atmosphere became electric as Richard rose up in the saddle at the line and lifted his crop in triumph.
Fans then ran to the parade ring and crowded around the perimeter to greet the champion and new record-holder with spine-tingling applause and cheers.
Double Grand Slam is owned by Player in partnership woth Suzette Viljoen and Dave McLean and runs in the latter’s colours.
There are still seven-an-a-half weeks left of the sesson and Richard’s projected number of wins (taken on the number of rides per calendar day rate coupled with his current strike rate for the season) is at least 390!!
However, especially after collecting a bonus of R1 milllion from Hollywoodbets today for breaking the record, he might consider easing down on his punishing travel schedule.
Richard’s first win of the day came on the Glen Kotzen-trained Captain Of All filly Whistle The Tune.
He then won on the impressive two-year-old filly Great Plains, who is owned by incredibly successful Durban-based owner, and she became the first stakes winner of the prominent Mauritzfontein-based Japansese-bred sire Danon Platina.
