Long-time racing fanatic and racehorse owner Jeremy Chetty was the deserved winner of this year’s Gold Circle sponsored Charity Turf Challenge. His entry under the pseudonym “Common Law” held on to the lead on Super Saturday and he walked away with the R100 000 first prize.

Second-placed Selvan Pillay’s “Bourne Identity”, who finished five points behind the winning total of 226, could have overtaken the leader if either Punta Arenas or Light The Lights had found a place in the Gr 1 Champions Cup. However, it was not to be and he had to be content with the R20 000 runner-up award.

A loyal supporter of the competition Philani Mfeka was a further five points back and earned R10 000 for third place.

Jeremy’s key horses were Power King and Captain Of All. He is an avid form studier and correctly predicted that Power King would enjoy a good Vodacom Durban July preparation and come in well weighted. He couldn’t see Captain Of All being beaten in either of the Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Sprint or the Gr 1 Mercury Sprint. The Conglomerate was another horse he liked. However, he is still lamented opting for Alboran Sea at the expense of the high-scoring Carry On Alice, as his entries would otherwise have filled the first three positions. His other three entries ultimately finished joint sixth, joint 24^th and joint 84^th.

Jeremy usually submits ten entries, but this year only made a last minute decision to enter.

His winning entry was named after the first and most successful horse he has owned, the Duncan Howells-trained three-time winner and Listed placed Dominion Royale filly Common Law.

His love of the Sport Of Kings began as a kid when he used to accompany his grandmother to the Tote. A horse he remembered well around that time was the classy grey filly Breyani.

The bug bit in his early twenties his passion was fueled through his friendship with Rajan Samuel, father of the jockey Marcus. Jeremey set himself goals in ownership and bought a share in Common Law. It was soon clear how talented she was when beating the useful older horse Rebel Patriot in a gallop. At the age of 25 Jeremy led in his first winner when Common Law won a Maiden Plate over 1000m at Scottsville in her sixth career start under Alec Forbes, having finished second in her first two outings. She won next time out and a few runs later Jeremy asked Willie Figueroa to fly down to ride her in the Listed Kwazulu-Natal Stakes over 1000m at Scottsville, in which she finished a 1,55 length third to the decent sort Mocha Java.

Jeremey later took a share in the Howells-trained Restructure colt Tarkwa Gold who won one race.

His next three horses were with various other trainers and didn’t win a race between them so he took a break from ownership until buying a share in the Yadav Singh-trained Irish Eminence. He believed this Grey Eminence colt had real ability and he duly won easily second time out over 1200m at Scottsville before being plunged straight into the Gr 1 Golden Horseshoe over 1400m on Vodacom Durban July day. Irish Eminence was badly cut into that day and was never the same horse afterwards.

Jeremy has an interest once more as he has bought into a Hemel ‘n Aarde Stud-bred Gimmethregreenlight colt that was knocked down at this year’s Suncoast KZN Yearling Sale. The colt is the first foal of the twice-winning Jet Master mare Tisane and has been named Rev Your Engine. The experienced Summerveld conditioner Ivan Moore will train him and the nice-sized colt has already been assessed as having both a good action and temperament.

Jeremy was also shortlisted for a position as a presenter on Tellytrack recently and was hoping another such opportunity materialised in his home province of KZN.

The Charity Turf Challenge certainly adds a lot of interest to the Champions Season and is a must for any racing enthusiast. Furthermore, the African Horse Sickness (AHS) Trust benefits from the proceeds to the tune of R30,000.

By David Thiselton

Picture: Jeremy Chetty (Nkosi Hlophe)

Gavin Lerena has earned widespread admiration for winning the South African Jockeys Championships this past season chiefly due to the mental grit he showed in burying the albatross of the 2011/2012 season.

On Thursday evening last week, the day before Gavin was officially crowned Jockeys Champion, his cousin Kevin Lerena won the South African cruiserweight boxing belt after an impressively one-sided 12 round victory over the title holder Deon Coetzee, so there will likely be a big family celebration sometime this week.

In the 2011/2012 season Gavin saw a big lead being diminished to virtually nothing in the final month.

He was still one winner clear of Anton Marcus entering the final meeting at Kenilworth but rode a blank to the latter’s double.

Gavin Lerena

He later sat in the jockey’s room shell-shocked and heartbroken.

He admitted, “Every morning after waking up or whatever I was doing in the day it was always in the back of my mind. I thought what could I have done differently, I had it in the bag and I just needed to follow through, but the cards didn’t fall that way. I didn’t have the support he had and it was very hard for me, it took me a long time to overcome it.”

Lerena also admitted that rather than making him mentally stronger the experience actually made him more fearful. This is a reality often seen in golfers after a major has slipped from their grasps – the task of keeping the choking demon at bay in subsequent majors becomes that much more difficult.

He continued, “It’s just great that we’ve got the win under our belt and everything from now on is a bonus.”

Lerena has a riding weight of 57kg and looked to have a tough task with two months of the season to go as he was going neck and neck with the then reigning champion S’Manga Khumalo, whose riding weight of 52,5kg allows him a wider range of opportunities. However, Lerena showed what he is made of in June when breaking a new South African record for the number of winners in a month, 42. His 154 rides that month were achieved at a strike rate of 27.27% and he had three four-timers, four trebles and five doubles. An indication of how taxing it is to chase a jockeys championship is that of those 42 June winners 12 were at Turffontein, nine were at Fairview, eight were at The Vaal, six were at Scottsville, four were at Flamingo Park and three were at Greyville.

The June milestone was the second South African record Lerena has set as he broke the legendary Michael “Muis” Roberts’ mark of 260 when riding 283 winners as an apprentice. He was a twice South African Champion Apprentice last decade.

Lerena said about his approach to this year’s title chase, “I set myself goals from the first day of the season and everything just went to plan. I couldn’t have asked for more, the support from the trainers and owners was really amazing.”

He added, “I had it won for about a week (before the end of the season) and everyone was saying how do you feel and it never really hit me, but last Thursday after the last race it hit me that I’ve done it and I thank God everything fell into place and went according to plan. I feel on top of the world.”

The title chase not only requires extreme levels of mental toughness but also a high level of physical fitness. However, Lerena revealed there was nothing like “racing fitness” and the only time he ever did extra exercise was during recovery periods when he did a lot of swimming.

Lerena has always been known as an outstanding horsemen. He was born into the racing game and was sitting on the back of horses before he could walk.

“I think my love for horses has a lot to do with my passion for the game. Without the horse we’re nothing.”

He said of the immediate future, “I want to take a couple of breaks over the next couple of months, a week here and a week there, but if within striking distance I’m definitely going to give the championships another shout.”

He has had a couple of job offers from overseas but has turned them down for now, “I’ve missed out a lot on my son’s growing up over the past couple of months and I just want to spend a lot of time with my family at this stage.”

Lerena spoke about his cousin Kevin, “He’s 23 years-old now and eight years ago he rode a winner at Clairwood – now he’s a heavyweight boxer! He’s a true sportsman and he’s very dedicated to his sport and I’m just so blessed that he’s back on top. He’s mentally and physically a very focused man and I’m very proud of him.”

The professionalism Gavin and Kevin have displayed this year appears to run in the family and another of the cousins Brandon is also a fine jockey in his own right.

Gavin revealed, “We’re very competitive and from a young age myself, Kevin, Brandon and my other cousins Steven, Evan and all of them, whether it was racing around the farm on horses or our bicycles, or cricket or soccer or rugby, we were very competitive and loved winning.”

Gavin has not ridden work for the last three months due to his travelling commitments and he concluded, “I love riding work and can’t wait to get back to the tracks and get to enjoy the horses in the mornings again.”

By David Thiselton

Picture: Champion Jockey Gavin Lerena

MJ Byleveld returns to action at Durbanville tomorrow after being off for over five weeks, the result of a horrific, eight stitches-needing gash just below his right knee when kicked at Kenilworth.

“The rehab took a little bit longer than I thought but I was able to resume riding work two weeks last Saturday,” says the Northern Transvaal-born Marthinus Johannes who will be 34 next month. “It’s good to be back, particularly when the yard is in form.”

Vaughan Marshall had four winners here last week and the Milnerton trainer may waste little time in returning to the winner’s box because Mystical Twilight looks nailed on for the opening Welcome To Durbanville Maiden.

You don’t get many Grade 1-placed horses running in maidens and, while Mystical Twilight may have been flattered by his third in the SA Nursery, his subsequent fourth to Purple Mountains looks more than good enough.

“He is quite highly rated and, while he hasn’t been on the course, there is nothing in the race that looks like giving us trouble,” is the jockey’s assessment.

But the early betting suggests that King Of The North might well worry him. The Eric Sands newcomer was all the rage when Betting World opened him at 5-1 yesterday. The price tumbled as the money poured on and by 2.30pm 22-10 was the best you could get.

Byleveld considers Victorious Jay in the Z.A.C. Hamilton Handicap the next best of his five rides but this three-year-old had to be ridden four furlongs out when scoring over 1 400m last time. This is 100m less and on a faster course so the 6-1 chance could struggle against the likes of Ochoncar (5-1) and Twentymanjones (6-1).

Donovan Dillon makes his Cape Town debut and the best of his three rides could be Team Valor’s Megan Jones in race two. This filly ran quite well behind Princess Royal when making her debut for Justin Snaith in January, she is a generous-looking 8-1 and Mike Robinson says: “I am hoping she will run well.”

However Supercilious, odds-on last time, has more recent form claims and the 12-10 favourite may be able to confirm the placings with La Rochelle (22-10) even though the Bass filly started slowly and so should, in theory, get closer.

Aspara also has losses to recover in the Ladies Day Maiden and the running of Mystical Twilight (less than a length behind her in Purple Mountains’ race) should provide a pointer. Just A Jag, nibbled at yesterday, looks the danger.

Race four is wide open but 5-1 shot Frenni could be another for the Marshall-Byleveld combination. She came from some way back to get up close home over 1 400m last time and looks capable of further improvement.

Gift Of Rain took a long time to win a maiden and, surprisingly, she was strongly supported yesterday (4-1 to 28-10). That price looks too short but money usually talks so don’t write her off.

There is not much between Exclusive Knight, River Blaze and Baksteen in the last while Charlie Strong gets the longer trip he has been looking for. However Archie is comparatively lightly raced and could be the answer at 5-1.

By Michael Clower

Picture: MJ Byleveld

Rising star Donovan Dillon is moving from Durban to Cape Town to become first jockey to Michael Robinson.

He said: “I will also be riding a lot for Mr Snaith and I have good support behind me from a couple of other Cape Town trainers.”

Dillon, 21, has ridden nearly 130 winners including this year’s Lonsdale Stirrup Cup on Solid Speed and he finished second on Melliflora in last Saturday’s Thekwini Stakes. He has impressed a number of the Summerveld-based Cape Town trainers in recent months.

Robinson, who will have around 50 horses this season, said: “I need a jockey who can ride work for me every morning and give me feedback. Donovan looks naturally gifted and he has been riding a lot for my father-in-law Doug Campbell who speaks highly of him.”

By Michael Clower

Picture: Donovan Dillon (Nkosi Hlophe)

CEO Sean Coleman said: “It’s a matter of economics. Our margins are tight and we are averaging only ten or 11% gross profit on turnover which is less than half what the Tote gets. Its take-out averages 25%.

“There will still be some bookmakers offering ante-post but as an industry we have taken the view that there will be no more ante-post market – as it has traditionally been called – two days in advance of local meetings.

“But there will continue to be ante-post betting on the big feature race festivals like the July, Met, Summer Cup, Gold Cup, Emerald Cup etc.”

Coleman added that for most races and most bookmakers prices will go up at 10.00am on the day of the race and he maintains that the change will suit the majority of punters.

He explained: “The sharpies and the shrewdies like to get on early but most can’t afford to tie up their money 48 hours in advance. They want to invest and get a return.”

Several of the big firms are taking a slightly different line to the SABA policy change and Betting World, the biggest of them, says that it will price up all races at least 24 hours beforehand. Marshalls already price up the previous afternoon and the company plans to continue with this approach “If the market proves sufficiently settled.”

Hollywood has still to decide on a plan of action – “we are betwixt and between”- but it had its Fairview prices up at 9.00am last Friday and, interestingly, claimed that it was the first of the major players to do so.

Seemingly even the SABA could change its stance if the new policy proves unpopular with punters and they vote with their feet. Coleman said: “This is not cast in stone but rather something we would like to try.”

By Michael Clower