Gold Circle Pty (Ltd)

Today's Racing :

Every winner excites Marcus

David Thiselton
Anton Marcus was crowned National Champion jockey for the second time at the end of the season just past and posted the remarkable winning strike rate of 30%. He accepted a token of his achievement from President Jacob Zuma in the parade ring before the running of last Saturday’s Vodacom Durban July.
Marcus is currently in England where he will be riding in the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup at Ascot on Saturday. He will captain the Rest Of The World team and his team-mates will be Luke Nolen of Australia and Yasunari Iwata of Japan.
Nolen is an up-and-coming star, while Iwata is the only Japanese rider to have won the Melbourne Cup. It will be the first time Marcus has ever ridden at Ascot and he described it yesterday as a “wonderful opportunity.”
The other provisional teams at present consist of Hayley Turner, Ryan Moore and William Buick of Great Britain, Kieran Fallon, Pat Smullen and Richard Hughes of Ireland and Frankie Dettori (Italy), Christophe Soumillon (Belgium) and Umbero Rispoli (Italy) will represent Europe. At home Marcus is contracted to ride for top trainer and owner Charles Laird and Markus Jooste respectively. He never aims at the championship, being bound by this privileged position that he has earned through his professional ethics, excellent consistency and big race temperament. During his career he has won most of the big races around the country, including the July a record-equalling four times. However, when asked his last season highlight yesterday, he replied, “Every winner. I get as much excitement winning a maiden plate as I do a big race.” He workrides about six days a week, so is very fit and goes for the occasional run to keep any abnormal weight fluctuation in check.
Marcus rides sparingly compared to most jockeys who have won the championship.
“Every yard goes through a quiet patch during any season, so being tied to a yard will mean some quieter spells,” he said. “I organise my own rides outside of my contract and where possible I aim for quality rather than quantity.”
Besides having a huge following due to his tremendous strike rate, he has ridden some exciting horses this season including many good Charles Laird-trained horses like Smart Banker, who won the Grade 1 Horse Chestnut Stakes, Oracy, Galileo’s Galaxy, Flying Tristram and Sports Coach.
That is not to mention some other Markus Jooste-owned horses like the unbeaten Joey Ramsden-trained Bravura, whom he gave a brilliant ride from a wide draw in the Grade 1 Cape Derby, as well as the star filly, the Mike de Kock-trained Gibraltar Blue. He also formed a fine association with the likely Equus Champion two-year-old filly, the Sean Tarry-trained Happy Archer, who was an impressive winner of July day’s Grade 1 Durban Thekwini Stakes.
Marcus will have his work cut out to retain the Championship as former Champion Andrew Fortune has already advertised his seasonal goals by travelling to lessser centres during this week. Fortune looks a new man having got his weight down to a steady 56kg after spending time in a clinic that specialises in nutrition among other things.

\| All information on these pages are (©) Copyright Gold Circle Pty (Ltd) 2002 \| site map
(This site is best viewed at 1024 X 768)