Dave The King powers to victory in the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge over 1600m at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Saturday (Candiese Lenferna Photography) 

www.mikedekockracing.com

With seven Grade 1 winners in the line up, Saturday’s G1 Gold Challenge at HWB Greyville was billed as ‘the race of the year’ – trust Mike de Kock to upset the more fancied runners with his recent Pinnacle Stakes winner, Dave The King.

The big, beautiful galloper has been placed against the land’s leading runners several times, but it took expert planning and preparation to get him into a Grade 1 contest over a course and distance that, in hindsight (and foresight), was always going to be his best chance of bagging a ‘major’.

Mike has always held Dave The King in high regard. He was truly excited about Dave The King’s high cruising speed and excellent fractions when he came to the stable in April 2023, impressed with his run to Charles Dickens in the KZN Guineas and then almost held on to beat See It Again in the Grade 1 Daily News 2000.

But Dave The King had a tendency to gallop too hard, early, had to learn to settle better, to reach his optimum potential and Mike said: “It took me a long time for me to convince the partnership to geld him. Since he’s been gelded, he’s honestly a different horse. Well done to them, because they’ve been patient and it’s been frustrating at times. I am so happy to get this win under the belt. This is why we’re in the game. It’s about group 1 racing and these are the ones we want all the time.”

Great Plains powers to victory under Richard Fourie (Candiese Lenferna Photography)

When the Justin Snaith-trained Great Plains won the Listed Hollywoodbets Sharks Gatecrasher Stakes over 1400m at Hollywoodbets Greyville in impressive style it would have caused joy to the two stud farms battling it out for the Breeders Championship, although for different reasons.

Great Plains became the long overdue first stakes winner for the Mauritzfontein-based sire Danon Platina and the stakes money for the R200,000 event would have helped increase Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein’s narrow lead over Drakenstein Stud in the championship.

For Drakenstein, it was their 19th individual stakes winner of the season, which leaves them one short of the national record 20 individual stakes winners they had last season.

Having the first black type winner for Danon Platina is another feather in the cap for prolific owner Nick Jonsson.

Snaith and Jonsson got the exacta in the race with Trippi colt Makazole finishing second.

Jonathan Snaith said about the purchase of Great Plains, “When Nick Jonsson and I were inspecting the short list at the 2023 Cape Premier Yearling Sale, lot 61 Great Plains was not hard to like. He was an athletic colt who used himself beautifully. Nick was (and still is) very confident of his sire, Danon Platina.”

Nick was excited about the grey after his debut, where he finished 6,10 lengths back in the CRS Cape Slipper over 1200m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth, partly because he received excellent feeback from jockey Daniel Muscutt.

The bullishness was well founded because Great Plains has rattled off three successive wins since then.

He arrived in KZN after being gelded and won over 1400m at Hollywoodbets Scottsville and then repeated the feat in a Juvenile Plate over 1400m at Hollywoodbets Greyville, when producing a powerful finish from way off the pace.

On Saturday, he was going to have to repeat the latter feat in the Gatecrasher as he was jumping from draw 12.

Richard Fourie managed to expertly find the rail, despite the big grey jumping outward from his wide draw.

In the straight he used his big stride to eat up the ground and despite having to make up close to ten lengths he won cosily.

Jonathan warned, “Often the KZN two-year-old form doesn’t hold up over time, but for now he’s a super horse and giving his connections some wonderful memories.”

Richard Fourie with the man whose record he broke, Anthony Delpech (Candiese Lenferna Photography)

Multiple award-winning writer Gary Lemke wrote the below article which contains quotes from Fourie and others about his record-breaking feat and it provides some interesting stats about his season to date.

Gary Lemke

Cape jockey Richard Fourie created history when he booted home his 335th winner of the 2023/24 racing season at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Saturday.

In recent months there had been such an air of inevitability about the outcome that Hollywoodbets were offering odds on when Fourie would break the national jockey’s championship record, not if. The magical number, which had stood for 25 years when Anthony Delpech rode 334 winners, was officially broken today by Fourie when he rode Double Grand Slam to victory in the Grade 2 Tibouchina Stakes over 1400m at Hollywoodbets Greyville. It was the third winner of the day for him, after previous success on Whistle The Tune and Great Plains.

The South African season finishes on 31st July and the 38-year-old Fourie is likely to extend the new record to a total that could stand for even longer than the quarter of a century that applied to Delpech.

After reaching the milestone, Fourie said: “This is the moment we’ve been waiting for and to reach it with a win for Mr (Gary) Player and the lovely owners on Double Grand Slam is ironic, given the name.

“The race worked out fantastically and everything was perfect. It hasn’t quite sunk in yet, but a special thank you to everyone who has been involved. Thank you to my Mom, who was definitely watching and she’ll be crying. Thank you to Hollywoodbets Greyville and to all those doing the marketing and promoting, There are too many people to thank right now, but also a massive thanks to my sponsors Winning Form.”

The jockey himself has earned a R1-million bonus from Hollywoodbets, who put up the financial incentive at the beginning of the 2023/24 season to inject interest into the jockey’s championship. Many considered the target of 335 as improbable and the fact that Fourie only had 32 winners after the first two months of the season further suggested the record would be untouched for another year, at least.

However, the Cape rider responded to the challenge and put himself through an exhausting programme to rack up the winners around the country and surpass Delpech’s record with a full seven weeks of the season remaining.

Fourie has ridden the most winners of his season at Fairview (105), while he has booted home 59 at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth and 23 at Hollywoodbets Durbanville. The highest number of winners from any one trainer has been the 96 with Alan Greeff in Gqeberha.

The next most successful partnership he has had is with Gauteng trainer Sean Tarry (22). The jockey’s seasonal tally includes five Grade 1 winners – Thunderstruck, Princess Calla, Silver Sanctuary, Proceed and Lucky Lad. Four have been trained by Tarry and one by Mike de Kock.

Cape Racing’s Executive: Racing & Bloodstock, Justin Vermaak, said: “We wholeheartedly congratulate Richard for his historic achievement. There were many who doubted the possibility but he, and Hollywoodbets with their generous incentive, injected unprecedented interest into the jockeys’ championship.

“This is also the first time that Richard has won the South African title and to do so by breaking the mark set by Anthony Delpech in 1998/99 will go down as one of the great feats in South African racing history.”

Fourie’s most prolific months were in March and May when he had 44 winners in each. However, his March total was trimmed down by one, to 43, when Mighty Mac was later disqualified, which meant that May will go into the books as to most official winners.

His daily travel routine for much of the year is laid bare when one drills down into the number of winners he has achieved at different courses in the country. Fairview has those 105, as mentioned, while Hollywoodbets Kenilworth (59) is individually the course where he has had the most success. Fairview’s tally is split between winners on the Poly surface (58) and Turf (47). Fourie has also ridden winners at Hollywoodbets Greyville (78) – 40 on the Poly and 38 on the Turf at that venue – Hollywoodbets Scottsville (34), and Gauteng courses Turffontein (34) and the Vaal (2).

In terms of the horse that he has had the most success on, it has been the star two-year-old filly Splicethemainbrace. She has run five times at Fairview, and is unbeaten with trainer Alan Greeff. There are four other horses he has won four times on during the season – all for Greeff at Fairview as well. They are Fairy Knight, Global Ally, Luna Halo and United Express.

On three occasions Fourie has ridden five winners in a race meeting. Those red letter days came at Hollywoodbets Greyville on 1st October, at Hollywoodbets Scottsville (29th November) and at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on 2nd June.

There will be many people arguing, justifiably so, that Fourie should be considered for South African Sportsman of the Year at the annual SA Sports Awards. This is based on the fact that his season spanned 12 months and the record was considered one of the most untouchable in South African sport.

The Greg Ennion-trained Major Apollo has been selected to win the last race (Picture: Wayne Marks)

Jack Milner (4Racing)

Well, Richard Fourie has cracked the record of 334, earned his R1-million and we can all now get back to the more rudimentary side of racing at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Tuesday.

Candice Bass-Robinson and Aldo Domeyer could be the team to follow at this meeting which is quite mundane overall.

Finding a best bet is not an easy task and that is why it could be worth going for an exciting first-timer Bass-Robinson sends out in Race 3, a Maiden Juvenile Plate for fillies over 1200m.

October Fest is bred in the purple and has a strong connection to the recent Grade 1 speed meeting staged at Hollywoodbets Scottsville on 1 June. She is a full sister to Tempting Fate (by Master Of My Fate), winner of the Gold Medallion in 2020, and a half-sister to October Morn (by Trippi), who triumphed in the SA Fillies Sprint this year.

The mare concerned is Miss October who is by Var. Bass-Robinson knows the family well as she trains October Morn, and if this filly is anywhere within the same realm as her, she should be hard to beat.

“Nice filly, may be green first start but has ability”, is the comment Bass-Robinson has placed in the Computaform and for a trainer who is ultra-cautious with her comments, those words are pretty convincing.

Of course, backing a first-timer can be tricky as some of these novices may bring a few idiosyncrasies into play. They not only can race greenly and hang, but they can always lose ground at the start and, depending on how much ground they concede, that could be a disaster in a sprint.

So, keep an eye on the betting, and it could also be worth watching the fillies go to post.

Jack Milner’s selections

Race 1: 2 In The Green Zone, 1 Scarlet Macaw, 4 Champagne Problems, 6 Festival Chic

Race 2: 16 From A Distance, 13 American Ultra, 11 Back At The George, 2 Double Dash

Race 3: 1 October Fest, 7 Mon Petit Cherie, 15 Duchess Of Paloma, 2 Hunga Tonga

Race 4: 8 Cliff Swallow, 5 Tam’s Knight, 7 Givethatmanabells, 14 Lead To Glory

Race 5: 6 Ellorix, 3 Ticking Bomb, 1 Kaapse Hoop, 8 United We Stand

Race 6: 4 Touchdown, 10 Slurricane, 6 Kelp Forest, 11 Night Bomber

Race 7: 10 Bardolino, 14 Quatermain, 12 Katsu, 7 Natyam

Race 8: 3 Two A Penny, 1 Gimme More Time, 2 Green Mandarin, 9 Holding Thumbs

Race 9: 1 On Board, 7 Royal Lytham, 6 Try Me, 8 Why Not Jackie

Race 10: 7 Major Apollo, 2 Rattlesnake, 6 Shifting Path, 4 Wordsworth

BEST BET

Race 3 No 1 October Fest

VALUE BET

Race 6 No 4 Touchdown

BEST SWINGER

Race 5 3×6

BIPOT

R288

Leg 1: 11, 13, 16

Leg 2: 1

Leg 3: 5, 7, 8

Leg 4: 3, 6

Leg 5: 4, 6, 10, 11

Leg 6: 7, 10, 12, 14

PLACE ACCUMULATOR

R324

Leg 1: 1

Leg 2: 5, 7, 8

Leg 3: 3, 6

Leg 4: 4, 6, 10

Leg 5: 10, 12, 14

Leg 6: 1, 2, 3

Leg 7: 1, 7

PICK 6

R1920

Leg 1: 5, 7, 8, 14

Leg 2: 3, 6

Leg 3: 4, 5, 6, 10, 11

Leg 4: 7, 10, 12, 14

Leg 5: 1, 2, 3

Leg 6: 1, 6, 7, 8

JACKPOT 1

R120

Leg 1: 3, 6

Leg 2: 4, 5, 6, 10, 11

Leg 3: 7, 10, 12, 14

Leg 4: 1, 2, 3

JACKPOT 2

R192

Leg 1: 7, 10, 12, 14

Leg 2: 1, 2, 3

Leg 3: 1, 6, 7, 8

Leg 4: 2, 4, 6, 7

Over the years the Belmont Stakes has been staged at the following venues:

• 1867-1890 – Jerome Park Racetrack
• 1890-1904 – Morris Park Racecourse
• 1905-1910 – Belmont Park
• 1911-1912 – Not Held
• 1913-1962 – Belmont Park
• 1963-1967 – Aqueduct
• 1968-2023 – Belmont Park
• 2024-2025 – Saratoga Racecourse

The Preakness was founded in 1873 and run at Pimlico racecourse. In 1890, Morris Park Racecourse in the Bronx, New York hosted the Preakness Stakes. After 1890, there was no race run for three years. For the 15 years from 1894 through 1908, the race was held at Gravesend Race Track on Coney Island, New York. In 1909 it returned to Pimlico