Gavin Lerena is all smiles after the Gareth van Zyl-trained Mamas Baby gave him a treble at Wednesday’s Hollywoodbets Greyville poly meeting. (Candiese Lenferna Photography).
It has been a difficult week for Gavin Lerena after what might soon be known as WhipGate, or WhipGates (!), but it has not stopped his sublime form from continuing unabated.
On Wednesday on the Hollywoodbets Greyville poly he rode a treble and moved into the lead in the national championship.
He added another on Thursday at Vaal Classic and has now had 130 wins at a strike rate of 27.25% compared to the 128 of Craig Zackey at 17.95% and the 119 of Richard Fourie at 24.74%.
The treble followed a double on Tuesday at the Vaal Classic track.
Since the emergence of new video evidence that shows him not to be the instigator of the fracas at Turffontein on Sunday, Lerena has generally won some sympathy at least from the public, although nobody is condoning his retaliatory measures.
Gavin’s first winner after the incident was on the Alec Laird-trained Foreverinmydreams on Tuesday at Vaal Classic and he said at the end of the winning interview, “Just a special mention to my family, to all my supporters, to my close friends and to the trainers and the owners who have all been behind me, thank you very much.”
Those words spoke volumes and it does appear that industrymen are generally in support of Lerena due to the level of provocation that appeared to precede his astonishing reaction.
However, the reaction has unfortunately gone viral around the world and does not generally contain footnotes explaining the other side of the story.
The other jockey involved in Sunday’s incident was Jason Gates, who has had ten wins this season at a strike rate of 6.62%.
If he is found to have deliberately struck Lerena, which the video available seems to clearly show, he could be in hot water. In fact one bit of video evidence has emerged that appears to show him striking Lerena a number of times before Lerena eventually reacts.
Gates deserves a fair inquiry too and the official patrol video will provide much clearer evidence.
Some are predicting a lengthy ban for Lerena.
However, if Christophe Soumillon only got two months for physially dislodging another jockey, there are some who are saying Lerena’s penalty is unlikely to be much more than that.
Three months seems to be a fair estimate, with perhaps some of it suspended due to his good previous record coupled with the mitigating circumstances.
The system in South Africa often allows jockeys to delay suspension starting dates by going through the various appeal processes.
However, whether he will be able to delay it in such a way to keep his championship hopes alive might not be feasible.