Twice SA Champion Jockey Warren Kennedy heads the statistics in stakes earnings and wins in New Zealand this season, but the title is decided on wins and he is now just six wins ahead of reigning champion Michael McNab, who is attempting to land the title for the third season in succession.
Kennedy is just three short of his first century in New Zealand on 97 wins for the season but is in the middle of a slump.
McNab has been on suspension from April 7 until April 19 inclusive, but Kennedy has in fact only had two wins in seven meetings in April, so has failed to take advantage.
He has a full book of nine rides tomorrow (Wednesday) at Arawa Park, so will be hoping to increase his lead over the sidelined champion.
Kennedy is head and shoulders the most successful jockey in the country this season in stakes races.
He has had 16 stakes wins, compared to McNab’s three.
Second in the stakes wins is Opie Bosson on 12 and Joe Doyle has eleven.
Doyle is still in contention for the premiership, being 12 behind Kennedy on 85 wins.
Kennedy is riding to a strike rate of 16.4%.
he has stakes earnings this season of $5,002,370 (R56,026,544).
That can be compared to his entire season’s stakes earnings of R24,700,325 when last winning the championship in SA.
However, it is not quite as lucrative as Hong Kong where SA’s leading rider on the island, Lyle Hewitson, has had 30 wins this season for joint 6th place on the log and has earned HK$54,598,380 (R132,674,063).
