David Thiselton
The national championships of all categories last season was notable in that there were no really close fought titles with all of them being clear cut, although there was a mathematical possibility that Varsfontein Stud could catch the eventual champions Mauritzfontein and Wilgerbosdrift at the World Pool Gold Cup meeting in the race for the Breeders Title.
Craig Zackey can now proudly and deservedly call himself Champion Jockey having reached a final tally of 286 wins for the season when landing a four-timer at the last meeting on the Fairview poly.
He had by far the most rides in the season of 1683, but his strike rate was a decent 16.99%.
Zackey had set himself a target of 275 for the season and such was his excellence throughout that his prediction turned out to be conservative.
He was 61 wins clear of nearest rival Richard Fourie, who had 225 wins at a strike rate of 21.55%.
Keagan de Melo is a man to watch as he ended on 158 wins in third place, despite starting the season four months in on December 5.
His strike rate of 20.57% tells a story as it was third highest on the log behind that of Aldo Domeyer’s (53 wins at 22.75%) and Fourie’s.
Fourie generally only travelled from Cape Town to the East Cape other than for big meetings in KZN and the Highveld and if it is the same this season then the title might be fought out by Zackey, De Melo and Gavin Lerena. The latter travelled to KZN for the first meeting of the new season and now looks to be Hollywood Racing’s chief rider.
The rest of the top ten together with their number of wins and strike rates were Muzi Yeni on 148 (11.96%), Calvin Habib on 133 (10.95%), Callan Murray on 117 (12.58%) , Serino Moodley on 100 (12.35%), Sean Veale on 94 (13.13%), Gavin Lerena on 92 (18.47%) and Rachel Venniker on 83 (11.96%).
Blaine Marx Jacobson will be crowned Apprentice Champion with 43 wins at 11.85% and he beat home Mxolisi Mbutho on 32 wins (7.60%), Damyan Pillay on 31 wins (11.40%), Dezahn Louw on 28 wins (8.33%) and Bavish Soodoo on 27 wins (10.31%).
If there had been betting on the Apprentice Championship Marx-Jacobson would likely have been a 100/1 shot at the beginning of February as he had mustered a paltry three wins from 97 rides in the season at that stage and was going along at a strike rate of at 3.09%.
The two leaders at that stage were Mxolisi Mbutho and Girish Samo-Burthia, who were both on 21 wins at respective strike rates of 9.68% and 12.73%.
Yet just seven weeks later Marx-Jacobson, after moving to the Highveld, had taken the lead on 28 wins and had improved his strike rate to 12.79%.
The leading Workrider in the country was Phenesile Mongqawa with 8 wins at a fine strike rate of 36.36% and Sam Mosia was next best with 7 wins at 25.93%, while Savanna Valjalo retired from the professional ranks in January but started riding in work races again in May and had five wins in 15 rides for a high strike rate of 33,33%.
The best bet of the season was Justin Snaith to land the Trainers Championship because at odds of around 5/10 it looked like buying money such was his firepower.
He ended up earning more than double the stakes money of his perennial closest rival Sean Tarry.
Snaith ended on stakes earnings of R39,579,158 from 140 wins.
The only statistic in which he was not leader was the number of wins in the season which saw Alan Greeff ahead on 149 wins.
The rest of the top ten was made up of Tarry (R17,897,882), Tony Peter (R15,419,938), Mike and Mathew de Kock (15,316,968), Alan Greeff (R13,191,599), James Crawford (R11,990,085), Candice Bass (R11,706,375), Dean Kannemeyer (R9,759,044), Vaughan Marshall (R9,543,629) and Glen Kotzen (R8,866,332).
The Breeders Championship was won for the third time in the last six seasons by Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein, who wrested the title back from Drakenstein Stud.
They won both the Gr 3 R1 million World Pool Gold Cup and the Gr 2 R500,000 Bet With The World Gold Bracelet on the final day of the season with Holding Thumbs and Mocha Blend respectively to remain clear of Varsfontein Stud, whose progeny Note To Self had won the R10 million Hollywoodbets Durban July.
Wilgerbosdrift is owned by Mary Slack, while Mauritzfontein is owned by her daughter and son-in-law Jessica and Steven Jell.
Wilgerbosdrift & Mauritzfontein’s progeny had 169 winners of 270 races with 11 individual stakes winners of 14 races for stakes earnings of R34,703,203.
Varsfontein Stud had 120 winners of 190 races with 17 individual stakes winners of 21 races for earnings of R32,261,776.
Drakenstein Stud had 85 winners of 135 races with 12 individual stakes winners of 14 races for earnings of R22,998,934.
Maine Chance Farms (Pty) Ltd had 69 winners of 117 races with 7 individual stakes winners of 13 races for earnings of R19,231,596.
Ridgemont had 96 winners of 142 races with 5 individual stakes winners of 6 races for earnings of R16,670,646.
Stallion phenomenon Vercingetorix secured his second Sires title with his progeny earning R40,770,265 from 138 winners of 248 races. He was unable to match his South African stakes race record from the previous season of 23 individual winners of 33 races, although his progeny did win more stakes races, 34, albeit with 21 individual winners.
Gimmethegreenlight (AUS) was in second places with 126 winners of 188 races. including 7 individual stakes winners of 7 races for earnings of R23,816,838
Querari (GER) had 92 winners of 143 races with 7 individual stakes winners of 12 races for earnings of R22,888,859
Master Of My Fate had 88 winners of 147 races with 11 individual stakes winners of 16 races for earnings of R21,145,171.
Rafeef (AUS) had 110 winners of 162 races with 6 individual stakes winners of 6 races for earnings of R20,746,283.
Malmoos was the freshman champion stallion with 9 winners of 14 races and 1 individual stakes winner of 3 races for earnings of R1,800,896.
Note To Self was the highest earning horse of the season on R6,382,850, followed by See It Again (R5,080,750), Mocha Blend (3,948,275), Wish List (R3,749,363) and Questioning (R2,933,125).
