The Fabian Habib-trained William Longsword filly Ice Star wins the Listed Betway National Colour Stakes and is the third leg of a four-timer for Piere Strydom (JC Photos)
Evergreen Piere Strydom is as good as ever and proved it at Turffontein Standside today when riding a four-timer, including winning the Listed Betway National Colour Stakes on the Fabian Habib-trained William Longsword filly Ice Star.
Strydom’s 31 wins this season have come at a phenomenal strike rate of 30.39%.
He is limited to rides of 58kg and above, unless he rides overweight.
However, all of his winners today are potential feature race candidates so he might be able to keep the rides on them.
His wins were on the Sean Tarry-trained One World filly One More Star, a half-sister to Malmoos and she got out of the maidens in promising style; the top class Lucky Houdalakis-trained sprinter Dyce (William Longsword); the hard-knocking Mike de Kock-trained White Pearl (Danon Platina) and Ice Star.
Marco van Rensburg is the most in from jockey in the country at present with eleven wins this month at a strike rate of 29.73%.
However, Gavin Lerena looks likely to be the one who will be the biggest competition to the odds-on favourite to retain his title, Richard Fourie.
Van Rensburg has ridden in seven meetings this month and his wins include a treble and three doubles.
His eleven wins have taken him to 32 wins for the season at a strike rate of 11.68%.
Van Rensburg has also enjoyed big race success as he won the Gr 2 Allied Steelrode Onamission Charity Mile on the Brett Crawford-trained Winchester Mansion (Trippi) and on the same day was successful on the Roy Magner-trained Olivia’s Way (Pathfork) in the Gr 3 Allied Steelrode Yellowwood Handicap over 1800m.
Both of those feature wins were notable because Winchester Mansion was coming off a tailed off last place finish, while the up and coming three-year-old filly Olivia’s Way was actually 5,5kg under sufferance according to official merit ratings (she was duly given a 13 point raise for her cosy two length win).
Meanwhile, Gavin Lerena’s treble on Sunday at Hollywoodbets Greyville and double yesterday saw him go to 66 wins for the season at an excellent strike rate of 27.05%. That puts him just two wins behind the log leader Muzi Yeni, who is sidelined after fracturing a clavicle in a nasty fall in the Charity Mile.
Winchester Mansion was ultimately blamed for Yeni’s fall after an inquiry, but no blame was apportioned to Van Rensbur’s riding.
A report by The Sporting Post said, “The Stipes said that the racing manners of Winchester Mansion was the major contributing factor, and several less substantial contributions resulted in Back In Business clipping the heels of Meridius and Jockey Muzi Yeni being dislodged.
They suggested that the seriousness of any incident like this one where a horse/s suffers interference and a Rider falls in a race cannot be underestimated, but at the same time to level a charge against a Rider/s there needs to be sufficient carelessness and/or recklessness to the required degree to sustain a competent charge.
The Stipes determined that due to the complexity of this incident and the role played by several horses and riders, that a charge could not be sustained against riders and have decided to close the matter.”
Richard Fourie is on 57 wins for the season at a strike rate of 23.85%.
He is on the same number of wins as Craig Zackey, who has done it at 14.62%.
Fourie is generally only riding in two centres, which is the same as Lerena who is riding on the Highveld and in KZN.
However, Fourie’s association with the prolific Alan Greeff yard makes him the favourite for the title.
At this stage last season Fourie had 84 wins, which gives an inkling of his down-pedalling this season, and so the 3/1 odds of Lerena for the title with Hollywoodbets could be temnpting for some compared to the 7/10 odds of Fourie.
Zackey is riding in all four centres, so he is an interesting proposition for the title at 4/1, but he would need to up his strike rate.
Yeni has now drifted to 7/1, after the unfortunate incident which came at a time when he looked to have a good chance of realising his long held dream of winning the championship. He had been riding on the Highveld, the Eastern Cape and KZN and his 68 wins had come at a strike rate of 15.53%. He is not out of it, but will need to ride his socks out in his comeback and will need to keep up his usual taxing schedule.
