Piere “Striker” Strydom’s final career winner was the St. John Gray-trained and homebred Bezrin gelding After Hours (JC Photos)
Piere “Striker” Strydom’s last day as a professional rider saw him add two more winners and end his glittering career on 5621 wins, a record for a South African jockey.
His strengths were seen in both of his wins.
In his first ride of the day on the Sean Tarry-trained Vercingetorix gelding Xenophon he waited patiently after finding second place from a tricky draw in the maiden over 1200m, but at the same time did not let the pacemaker Power Of Pearls get too far ahead, as the latter had made a fine debut so if ready after a six month layoff she had the capability of winning the race. Piere timed his run to perfection and made his move just before the 200m mark, sweeping past Power Of Pearls and winning by 4,60 lengths to convert 5/10 favouritism.
Tarry thanked the owners Anthony and Angela Beck for allowing him to run Xenophon at a time of the year he would not normally have run him. He had identified this horse as giving Striker a good opportunity at his last meeting and it was fitting the legend had a winner in one of South Africa’s most famous sets of racing silks, the “brown with a white V bib and white cap with brown spots” colours of the Beck family, originally owned by the famous owner/breeder Graham Beck.
In Piere’s next ride he finished unplaced on Nkwenkwezi, who did not make progress in the straight after finding a one wide position with cover in fifth place, having jumped from a wide draw.
The last win of Striker’s career was on the St. John Gray-trained seven-year-old Bezrin gelding After Hours and after dictating from draw one in the 1450m contest Piere left something in reserve in his usual canny fashion. When the challengers came he used the reserves to repel them and win by a length to convert 17/10 favouritism.
After Hours usually comes from off them, so Piere feared St. John would not be liking what he was seeing, but he stuck to what he thought was the right thing to do after finding himself in front. He spoke of the many winners he had had for St. John and their on and off times, but he was clearly very grateful for the winner and heaped praise on the man who owns and breeds the horses he trains and as Piere quipped “he sometimes rides them too.”
In Striker’s last ever professional ride he led on the Mike and Adam Azzie-trained What A Winter filly Summer Winter, but she was swamped late and finished a 3,45 length fourth.
Eight of the races at the nine race Vaal Classic track meeting were named in Striker’s honour, namely:
Piere Strydom 5600 Winners And Counting Juvenile Plate;
Piere Strydom Member Of 300 Wins In-a-season Club Maiden Plate;
Striker And JJ The Jet Plane Take On Hong Kong In 2010 Maiden Plate;
London News – Strydom’s 1996 Durban July Triumph Maiden Plate;
Tudor Rullah 1990 Strydom’s Greatest Ride Maiden Plate;
Champion’s Day Six – Strydom’s Unforgettable Haul Fm 82 Divided Handicap;
Striker’s Seven Wins In A Day, Twice In His Career Mr 72 Handicap;
The Legend Piere Striker Strydom Rode The Pick 6 In July 1990 Fm 76 Handicap;
The other race on the day was run in memory Of Barend Botes.
Piere reached the career 5000 win mark when winning the Gr 2 Selangor Cup over 1600m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on the Joey Ramsen-trained Act Of War on November 22, 2014.
Then on May 14, 2015, he reached 5000 wins in South Africa aboard the Lucky Houdalakis trained Allegorical.
His overseas tally was 72 wins.
Among those was the Gr 1 Hong Kong Sprint on 12 December, 2010, which he regards as the most memorable victory of his career and it was on the horse he regards as the best he ever rode, J J The Jet PLane.
Striker was off for over a year from April 2021 to June 2022 and rode a winner in his fist comeback ride on the Justin Snaith-trained Nexus.
His comeback was intended to be in order to get eleven more wins and retire when he reached 5500 career wins.
However, he became associated with some top horses and spoke of how difficult it was to call it a day in such circumstances.
He ultimately accumulated another 132 wins in his comeback and that included four Gr 1 wins, two on the Michael Roberts-trained See It Again, one on the Mike de Kock-trained Humdinger and one on the Brett and James Crawford-trained Fatal Flaw.
Piere’s riding seemed to get better and better as he got older and this is shown in the statistics.
In his first full season back he had 17 wins at a strike rate of 8.42%.
In his second full season back he had 42 wins at 16.87%.
In the season completed today he had 69 wins at a strike rate of 23.88% which was only behind the strike rates of Gavin Lerena and Richard Fourie on the national log.
Farewell Striker and thank you for the wonderful memories!
