David Thiselton
Twice South African champion jockey and New Zealand reigning champion jockey Warren Kennedy is arriving in South Africa this weekend three weeks before the Hollywoodbets Durban July and is seeking a ride in the big race.
He has apparently received offers already and will be choosing his best option.
Kennedy has never won the July before but regards his third place finish on the notoriously difficult Mike de Kock-trained 100/1 shot Forest Path in the 2009 July as one of his career best rides.
His first ride in the July was in 2004 on the unplaced 100/1 shot Cousin John.
His best finish other than his third place in 2009 was fourth on the Glen Kotzen-trained Eyes Wide Open in 2019.
Kennedy was SA champion jockey in the 2019/2020 season and the 2021/2022 season with 209 and 263 wins respectively.
Winning a championship in your home country is one thing, but to do it in a foreign country in your first full season there is an extraordinary feat and that is what Warren managed in New Zealand in a gruelling but memorable 2023/2024 season, in which he had 140 wins in 849 rides for a strike rate of one every 6.06 rides or in South Africa terminology 16.9%.
His season included a memorable seven-timer, which is a New Zealand record.
Kennedy relocated to New Zealand in October 2022 and his seven-timer happened in a major ten-race meeting at Pukekohe on New Year’s Day 2024. It beat the previous single day record of six by Lance O’Sullivan, who was the co-trainer of three of Kennedy’s winning rides. Kennedy, who was booked on nine horses, partnered four of the first five winners of the day, which included two Gr 2 successes and he completed a hat-trick in races six, seven and eight, including the first Gr 1 race of 2024, the Railway Stakes aboard Waitak.
Kennedy was involved in an intense tussle for the title last season with the reigning champion Michael McNab. An untimely injury to the latter saw Warren ultimately pulling clear to win by 16.
The New Zealand press were high in their praise.
“To move to New Zealand as a total unknown here and win the premiership inside two years defies belief and McNab can take comfort he has conceded his title to a horseman of rare talent and drive,” wrote journalist Michael Guerin in the New Zealand Herald. “He (Kennedy) has been equal parts magnificent in the saddle, professional out of it and robotic in his determination to add the New Zealand jockey’s title to the two premierships he won in his native South Africa.”
Other records Warren set besides the seven in a day was becoming the first jockey to ever surpass NZ$5 million in stakes earnings in one New Zealand season and he might well have been the first foreign rider to win the title.
He said chasing the premiership had actually required more travel and had been just as taxing on him as it had been in South Africa.
He said towards the end of last season, “In SA you just fly into the major centres and you’re just about on course. But In New Zealand to get to some courses requires a two hour flight and a three hour drive. There are some pretty remote race courses and it’s quite a mission to get there, so it’s been very, very busy, really a lot of travelling.
Warren’s focus changed this season as his wife Barbara, former Summerveld assistant trainer to Dean Kannemeyer, took out her training license last season and he helps out as much as he can at the yard in addition to his other riding commitments.
This season Barbara has had ten wins in just 71 outings, a fine strike rate of 14.08%. She looks set to win more support at that rate.
Warren is likely to ride in meetings out here before the July, although he did not speak of that chance.
