Anton Marcus moved to the top of the national log with a treble on the Greyville polytrack yesterday. 

He is now on 98 winners, one ahead of Muzi Yeni, and is riding to a phenomenal strikes rate of 31,82%.

Marcus started off with an easy victory in the first race over 1000m on the Paul Lafferty-trained odds-on shot Buckleberry, a hard-knocking three-year-old gelding by Crusade.

In the third he rode a peach of a race on the Dennis Drier-trained three-year-old Master Of My Fate gelding The Master. He had to get him over from a tricky draw of seven but left something in reserve and pulled away just as he looked likely to be swamped in the straight.

Marcus clinched the treble with another fine ride in the last race over 1000m on the Louis Goosen-trained five-year-old Bernadini gelding Di Mazzio, getting him handy from pole position before producing a strong finish.

Reigning national champion jockey Lyle Hewitson scored a double. He made a belated start to the season due to injury but is making up the leeway rapidly and is now in fourth place on the log on 73 winners. 

Hewitson rode the Sean Tarry-trained Speightstown filly Little Bristol to victory over 1200m and later won easily on the Greg and Karen Anthony-trained Mulllins Bay gelding Prince Charming over 1600m. 

However, the ride of the day belonged to Warren Kennedy who steered the Dennis Bosch-trained Born To Perform to his second win from as many starts.  

Kennedy’s fine hands allow him the quirky colt to do what he wants without tearing away. He once again found a handy position with relative ease from another wide draw in the 1600m handicap and then turned it on well in the straight, despite having to be switched inward from the outside rail. He won going away by 2,5 lengths. He ran off a mere 65 merit rating so it is still too early to get overly excited but the big grey is certainly going the right way and his stakes earnings in just two runs are now R115,000, a pleasing return on a R55,000 purchase by Bosch at the BSA Super Sale last year. He is providing owner R Hurchund with a lot of entertainment.

Bosch scored a double when Keagan de Melo easily won the seventh over 1200m on eight-year-old Jet Master gelding Peter Piper. That race also sealed a quick double for De Melo. He had earlier won on Garth Puller’s four-year-old Oratorio filly Tuulikki, who knocked plenty of tickets out of the exotics in the sixth race over 1400m.

By David Thiselton