David Thiselton

South African champion jockey Gavin Lerena is living in limbo at present as he awaits the outcome of his appeal on August 18 against the severity of the sentence in the Jason Gates whipping incident.

He was looking forward to riding this week as he had to take time off for the inquiry and then had to sit out a suspension, but he had to book off yesterday’s Vaal meeting as he is down with the flu.

He described his championship winning season as having been mentally tough, especially due to the Gates incident, and expanded, “I stayed off social media, but my family really took it to heart and it wasn’t easy for any of us.”

He described the build up to the incident, his spur of the moment reaction and the immediate aftermath.

He said, “I had three winners the previous day, including Rascova winning a Gr 1, but it was a scorching day and after eleven rides there was a late night flight, so I was feeling a bit mentally fatigued. Jason’s mount carried me out six horse-widths from the top of the straight to where the incident happened. He had switched his whip to the right hand and his horse was going straight. He then changed it back to the left hand and began whipping when there was no room to whip. He struck my filly on the chest and then struck me on my arm. I was angered especially by my filly being hit on the chest and thereafter the whip could have gone anywhere, it could have even hit me in the eye. My reaction was spur of the moment, it is fight or flight.”

However, as quickly as the pull up Gavin was already thinking, “Oh my goodness, what have I just done.”

The next day he issued a public apology for his “out of character” reaction.

He and Jason chatted about a week later and agreed upon it being a dangerous sport and they needed to have respect for one another. They agreed to move on from the incident too.

However, keyboard warriors did not allow the tightly knit Lerena family to forget about it.

Furthermore, Gavin did not know where he stood for a long time.

He added, “The inquiry was also tough as it was three days long and I had to represent myself … had I taken a lawyer I would not have been able to appeal. I had to face nine legal people on my own.”

He continued, “Other than that, I had a fantastic season. I enjoyed my racing and I enjoyed the people I rode for. I didn’t have the East Cape, so I had to be extra smart to get as many winners as I could and I was very blessed. There’s been a couple of seasons lately that I’ve wanted to go for it, but it’s got to all fall into place and I was very fortunate to get support in Cape Town last season … I’ve never had that before.”

Gavin had a fall out with one of his main guv’nors, Johan Janse van Vuuren, at the beginning of the season, but they later made up.

Gavin said, “It is quite funny when you look back at it, because it was something so stupid. But it lit the fire inside me.”

The support in Cape Town included partnering the top class Vaughan Marshall-trained One World colt One Stripe.

Gavin said winning the prestigious Gr 1 L’Ormarins King’s Plate on One Stripe had been the highlight of his season.

He said, “Winning the Guineas was great, but the King’s Plate has aways been a race I’ve wanted to win. It’s not easy with a three-year-old, but he was up to the task.”

One Stripe had a lot of ground to make up at the top of the straight, but Gavin said, “I was going really well. I knew I had so much horse under me. He sometimes hits a flat spot and you’ve got to help him through it, but when he’s ready and you’re ready he gives you an amazing kick. I never felt like I was going to lose the race to be honest.”

Gavin’s daughter had broken her arm the previous night and the family had to make a late night emergency trip to the hospital, so he arrived on course with about three hours sleep.

Gavin rates One Stripe as up with the best he has ridden, but he said keeping the ride overseas was not going to “be easy”.

Gavin showed true grit in his first championship in 2014/2015, because always in the back of his mind in a tight tussle with S’Manga Khumalo was the heart-breaking memory of three years earlier when ousted by one win by Anton Marcus on the last day of the season, despite entering that meeting one win up. However, Gavin scored a record-breaking 42 wins in June 2015 to pull clear and obliterate that bad memory forever.

This season had a different challenge, as already mentioned.

He said chasing a championship was physically taxing too, with flying being the worst of it.

Gavin said as a jockey he was always improving.

He said, “In this sport you’re always learning new things and evolving. I have always been confident in the saddle, but your race riding and use of different tactics improves. Our racing’s changed quite a lot as well, fifteen years ago, we went a good, strong gallop, but a lot of races today are canter-sprints.”

Gavin said he always had a plan A, B and C going into a race.

He revealed, “I try to work out how a race is going to pan out and the bottom line is you’ve got to have a horse where the horse is happy. It’s no use forcing a horse to be two lenghs closer than he wants to be.”

His wife Vicky is a racing TV presenter and that has helped.

He said, “She found me a lot of winners just by watching the race and saying you’ve got to get on that one next time.”

Gavin’s agent Wade Viljoen also did a fine job finding good rides through the season.