Piere “Striker” Strydom is booked for his first comeback ride on Sunday at Hollywoodbets Greyville and is driving down to Durban with his wife and kids today (Friday).
He will ride his Hollywoodbets Durban July mount Belgarion in a gallop tomorrow (Saturday) at Summerveld and will then ride another Justin Snaith-trained Dynasty gelding, Nexus, in the R600,000 KZN Breeders Mile on Sunday.
He then has another two rides on Monday on the Hollywoodbets Greyville poly, the Fabian Habib-trained Waqaas and the Gareth van Zyl-trained Another Love.
He will then drive back to the Highveld where he has three rides on Tuesday at the Vaal on the Billy Ruiters-trained Samthewiseman, the Grant Maroun-trained Global Breeze and the Grant Maroun-trained Queen Britanna.
He will try and get more rides for Turffontain next Thursday.
He then drives down to Durban again with his family and said, “It is always great to be in Durban around the July time so we will make a weekend of it.”
Piere was almost jocked off his Hollywoodbets Durban July mount by officials who were concerned about his ring rustiness and whether it would be fair to punters.
He also had to get offical clearance from the opthalmologist.
He explained, “They had read somewhere that I was apparently going blind! Thank goodness I have now got clearance though and I am thankful they are giving me a chance to get unrusty.”
He only missed one day of workriding last week to go to the opthalmologist and is happy with his fitness.
He said, “It is all looking good. I jumped out of the stalls for three gallops this week to get used to pushing a horse out again, but there is nothing like riding in a race.”
His weight is coming down slowly, although not as quickly as he would have liked and he put that down to the cold weather.
However, he is confident he will get it down enough by Sunday to ride Nexus at 57kg.
Strydom was happy with what he saw of Belgarion’s last race.
It was not a strong field but he finished second and looked to be striding out well.
Belgarion, who won the 2020 July, only arrived at Summerveld this week and was allowed to do his official July gallop at the training centre on Wednesday. He just did a light canter on the beach track and strode out well.
Piere did not go down for the gallop because Snaith had told him it was too soon after his arrival to be able to do any hard work.
By Sunday it will be about a year and and two-and-a-half months since Piere last rode in a race and the fans will be glad to see him back.
He intends retiring officially after gaining the eleven more wins he needs to reach 5500 in his career.
He said any engagements he still had after reaching that milestone would be fulfilled.
Therefore, there is a good chance he will be able to have an official farewell meeting.
Picture: Wayne Marks
