Ryan Munger intends to continue with his have saddle-will travel approach to life – at least so far as his new job as first jockey to Glen Kotzen permits – when he moves to Cape Town at the end of the month.

“I will still do PE on Friday, Zim on Sunday when I get the chance, and Kimberley on Mondays,” he says. “I always have a full card there, riding for Stephanie Miller.”

Ryan Munger

Flamingo Park might as well be Outer Mongolia so far as most Cape Town jockeys are concerned. They have heard about the long bus trip to and from Johannesburg and quietly shuddered. “I now fly there and there is a flight from Cape Town to Kimberley so there shouldn’t be a problem,” says Munger, making light of the logistics. The fact that it leaves at 6.15am, necessitating arriving at the airport shortly after 5.00am, is greeted with a smiling “No problem – that won’t worry me. Anyway I would rather ride every day. I love what I do and, if I were to sit around, I’d get bored.

Surprisingly, he had never ridden at Kenilworth until May 26 this year. “It was the big day at Scottsville and I got offered rides by Mrs Bass-Robinson so I came for the day. She has supported me since.”

The association with Kotzen came two months later. “I rode Lanza for him, the horse won and a week later he said I must call him. It (the job offer) happened just like that.”

Now Munger is searching for somewhere to live – “I want to be in or around everything – I don’t want to be too far out – so I will probably stay in somewhere like Blouberg.”

Munger, 23 on Saturday week, is a nephew of Stuart Randolph and reckons to have ridden between 400 and 500 winners “including 60 in Zim.” Few people have been busier. He had over 1 200 rides in the season he finished his apprenticeship and more than 1 300 in the two subsequent seasons.

He rides at 52kg quite comfortably and without any form of diet. “Jeez, if I tell you what I eat people wouldn’t believe me.” So what does he eat? He grins: “Anything – and that includes takeaways.”

His biggest win so far was last year’s Caradoc Gold Cup on Ilitshe but he is confident his new association with Kotzen will bring him several at the highest level. But he wants even more. “The ambition is to win the July, naturally, and by next season to put myself into contention for the championship, or the top three at the very least.”

By Michael Clower

Jockey Gavin Lerena returns to race riding riding on Thursday after a long break. Lerena reported to Gold Circle Media Centres racing analyst, Warren Lenferna, that he is going for final x-rays tomorrow (Wednesday 5 September) and he is hoping for the go ahead. Gavin sees no reason why it should be any other way.

Gavin’s biokineticist is happy with his progress and the strength of his shoulder, commenting that the bone won’t be 100% healed but it should almost be. “I am looking forward to a good and positive outcome tomorrow,” reported Lerena.

Gavin has been riding work for four weeks already and feels strong and fit enough to start riding in races. He is looking forward to Thursday and cannot wait to get back into the saddle and be competitive in races. Gavin has decided to take only one or two rides for the first few meetings back, to allow himself to ease back into full swing.

Gold Circle look forward to having Gavin back riding and have very little doubt that it will not be long before the masterful and balanced rider is back in the winner’s enclosure.

By Warren Lenferna

Featured Image: Gavin Lerena (Nkosi Hlophe)

A few set-backs last term, including a virus that affected many horses in the yard, saw Duncan Howells behind the eight ball for a couple of months at a crucial time in the season.

“The virus set me back and I was way behind with my two-year-olds,” said the Ashburton trainer. That’s all behind him now and his newly turned three-year-olds are starting to show their worth.

Thanksgiving, an impressive winner at Scottsville on Sunday, finished fourth on debut behind lessor fancied stable companion Rocket Fire who arrived on the scene just too late to catch Flying George.

The Poet (Nkosi Hlophe)

Rocket Fire, another purchase out of the Mayfair Speculators dispersal, lines up in the All To Come Maiden plate at Scottsville today. He is likely to start at cramped odds and victory will set him up for a tilt at the lucrative CTS sales races in January.

In opposition is the Paul Peter-trained Copenhagen.  Peter is a rare visitor outside of Champions Season so one needs to sit up and take note of his two runners on the day. He has booked Anton Marcus for Copenhagen and Marcus will know exactly what he is up against having ridden Rocket Fire in work.

Dennis Drier took the wraps off a smart filly in In The Stars on Sunday, the daughter of Master Of My Fate losing valuable ground at the start but finishing off with an emphatic victory. Drier saddles Golden Chance in the card opener and she looks to have been set up nicely for her debut. Rested after her first barrier trial, her next trial was a better effort behind subsequent winner Monte Christo.

The majority of the field come off trials but two who caught the eye were Shock Victory and Song Of The Forest who contested the same trial. Song Of The Forest is a nicely balanced filly with plenty of scope. Wearing ear-muffs, she was always handy and stayed on nicely towards the end without any urging.

Shock Victory caught the eye in the paddock as a filly with plenty of scope but she galloped very green and that may be a concern.

La Duchesse made marked improvement at her second start when starting at long odds but Paul Gadsby’s filly will be way shorter than 36-1 in the third. She finished with a rattle under Sherman Brown, beaten under a length, and Marcus was quickly on the blower after acceptances to jock his rival off.

Brown will be on Carefree for Dennis Bosch who finished down-field on debut but has shown some ability in her three barrier trials. A better proposition could be Wisp Of Glory. Two winners have come out of her trial behind Mela Stregata and she will definitely prefer the extra two furlongs.

Mutawaary makes his debut for Bosch in a tricky handicap in the opening leg of the jackpot and it will be interesting to see just how the gelding has progressed from his trial. For a horse that has shown his better form over a mile and further, he showed excellent pace as he matched the speedy Doing It For Dan in his trial run in 58secs flat with the balance of the triallists some four lengths back.

Peter sends out Defy Gravity in this race who takes a drop in trip and gets 2.5kg relief in the saddle courtesy of apprentice Luke Ferraris. That may not be enough and even if Mutawaary does not run up to expectations the likes of Steam Ahead and The Poet will have their supporters.

Antony Hotspur looked to be going places after a delayed start to his career but was rested when finishing out of the money for the first time when tried over 1700m. He had excuses however, having cast a shoe in the race, and he has not been out since June. But he does show good pace and Alistair Gordon’s charge could prove a little too classy in the fifth where Archilles, Drageda and Rockcliffe look threats.

By Andrew Harrison

Agent Of Fortune, the forgotten man of last season’s two-year-olds, is on the way back and is being targeted at the R2.5 million Lanzerac Ready To Run at Kenilworth on November 18.

The What A Winter colt, then owned by Mayfair Speculators in partnership with Bryn Ressell and Marsh Shirtliff, was considered good enough to make his debut in the valuable Kuda Sprint on Met day and he beat the Sean Tarry-trained Cirillo by a short head. But he has not been seen since.

Vaughan Marshall said: “He chipped a knee when he got to Durban and it will be another six to eight weeks before he runs but he will make the Ready to Run.”

Agent Of Fortune and Cirillo are both rated 102 and jointly top the log for the rich 1 400m race, 2kg clear of the filly Can You Feel It.

Horizon, who had a knee-chip operation following the Sun Met when he was reported not striding out, reappears in the 1 250m Supabets Pinnacle Stakes at Durbanville on Saturday. Aldo Domeyer rides him and Bernard Fayd’Herbe will be back on stable companion Tevez. Fayd’Herbe won a Pinnacle on the veteran at Kenilworth in June.

The MR 96 mile handicap attracted only four runners and has been scrapped but the 1 400m maiden, which saw 27 declared, has been divided.

By Michael Clower

The postponed Grade 3 Spring Spree Stakes has been moved in its entirety to the Turffontein meeting to be held this Saturday and the Non-Black Type Ladies Stakes, which was reopened for entries yesterday, will also be run on Saturday so Highveld racegoers can look forward to more races than usual this weekend.

Meanwhile, the first entries for the G-Bets Summer Cup will take place on September 25.

Both the Spring Spree Stakes and the Ladies Stakes fell victim to a leaking water pipe at Saturday’s meeting, which was called off after the running of the fourth race.

Jeterio (JC Photographics)

The main supply pipe which feeds the sprinklers was leaking and a section of ground at the 650m mark became waterlogged.

Such a problem is only known about when the water seeps to the surface.

However, the good news is there is no long-term damage and the Phumelela Racing Executive Clyde Basel said they could have raced the next day. However, a plan to continue the meeting on the Sunday had to be shelved after an attempt to fit it into the existing local and international schedule failed.

The racing could not be moved to the Standside track as the latter is being scarified in preparation for the Summer Cup, which will be run on December 1.

Phumelela recently announced a new sponsor for the Summer Cup in G-Bets. There is sure to be a classy entry list on September 25. The four races run on Saturday still produced some interesting results.

The former Grade 1 J&B Met winner River Jetez, a full-sister to the great Pocket Power, had her second runner and her second debut winner. In Saturday’s first race, a Maiden for fillies over 1600m, her daughter Jetorio by Oratorio came from last with a good rattle to win by half-a-length from the 50/1 outsider Miss Patriot with the favourite Sweet Red third. The R4 million Frankel filly Frankly over raced from another tough draw so did well to finish fourth. She is better than her record suggests and will win soon, especially if landing a draw for a change. Jetorio was bred and is owned by Mr and Mrs CA Amm and Avontuur Stud. The Amms were the part-owners of River Jetez when she was racing.

Jetorio is trained by Sean Tarry and was ridden by S’Manga Khumalo.

Tarry later made it a double when Africa Rising followed up on his recent 1160m win with victory over 1450m under 2,5kg claimer Luke Ferraris. This five-year-old Visionaire gelding has always been talented and looks to have come into his own so it will be interesting to see where Tarry races him next.

By David Thiselton