The Drakenstein Stud-bred What A Winter gelding Romilly impressed on debut and gave Gavin Lerena one of five wins at Turffontein Inside today and one of four wins for trainer Johan Janse van Vuuren. (JC Photos).
Gavin Lerena had a record 42 wins in June 2015 when locked in a battle for the championship and that allowed him to race away from the opposition to secure his first title.
Ten years later he is attempting to pull away from the opposition late in the season again and a five-timer at Turffontein today (Thursday) has left Craig Zackey and Richard Fourie with a mountain to climb as Lerena is now nine wins clear of both of them.
Lerena’s five-timer took him to 251 wins for the season, while Richard Fourie rode a double today at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth to join Craig Zackey in second place, but his chances of closing the gap were scuppered when the meeting was abandoned after four races.
Zackey chose to ride at Turffontein on the day and had two seconds, but no winners.
His chance of a first title are fading.
Lerena will be hard to beat in his bid for a second championship.
However, Fourie always has the chance of multiple wins for the powerful East Cape yard of Alan Greeff, so it might still go down to the wire despite there being just 21 days of the season remaining.
Lerena’s first win today was aboard the Tyrone Zackey-trained Danon Platina filly Japanese Garden in the first race over 1200m. She enjoyed the step down in trip, but seemed to have a lot to do to catch the runaway leader, the well-backed Johan Janse van Vuuren-trained first-timer Saragossa Cat, but she stayed on resolutely and won by a comfortable 1,50 lengths in the end to convert 18/10 odds.
Lerena won the second easily on the Van Vuuren-trained first-timer Romilly (What A Winter), who was backed in to 2/1 but won the race like an odds-on shot, dominating from the off.
In the fifth race over 1600m Lerena’s mount, the Mike and Adam Azzie-trained Singleton Sam came in for a ton of support to start at 18/10 and after getting to the front from draw seven the two-year-old One World colt relaxed well and pulled clear to win by a convincing 3,50 lengths.
Lerena also won the sixth race over 1600m by 3,50 lengths on the Van Vuuren-trained 5/4 shot Merryweather (Gimmethegreenlight).
In the last race his mount Ensuing (William Longsword) ran on strongly from a handy position to win by 1,75 lengths, clinching a five-timer for himself and a four-timer for Johan Janse van Vuuren.
Fanie Bronkhorst scored a double at the eight race meeting.
Lerena’s 251 wins in the season have been achieved at a strike rate of 25.13%.
Fourie’s 242 wins have been at 25.21%.
Zackey’s 242 have been at 17.46%.
Janse van Vuuren is on 45 wins at 15.10%.
Fourie’s two wins at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth were both for Justin Snaith.
If the national trainers championship went on number of wins it would be equally thrilling as Snaith’s 161 wins is identical to the number of wins Alan Greeff has had.
However, Snaith is close to R16 million clear of second-placed Greeff in stakes and Sean Tarry is in third place narrowly behind Greeff.
Snaith’s strike rate is 14.68% and Greeff’s is 17.81%.
