Anton Marcus, who has got this season off to a rollicking start, doesn’t need the help of an agent. He can pick his own plums and the looks to have plucked a ripe fruit in the third on the Greyville poly today.

He partners the Kom Naidoo-trained Palace Rose and although the filly can be difficult she looks to be head-and-shoulders above her rivals in spite of stepping up to 1600m for the first time.

Palace Rose has gone close on a number of occasions, including last time out when beaten under a length on the poly and of her rivals, only Face Of An Angel has finished within two lengths of the winner.

Palace Rose looks to have this field at her mercy, but three that could be worth taking note of are Paradise Song, Cosmology and Counter Fate.

Palace Rose was priced up at around a seemingly generous even money yesterday with Paradise Song the only market mover. Glen Kotzen’s filly was in from an opening call of 11-1 to around 8-1 so it may be worth taking note as she too stretches to a mile for the first time. The Sean Tarry-trained Cosmology made no show in her barrier trial but is bred to stay today’s trip and further so any market support should not be ignored, similarly Counter Fate. Dennis Drier, recently crowned KZN’s champion trainer, has kept his filly to sprints but she did make marked improvement last time out. The extra should suit so is another to warrant serious consideration is you do not fancy the ante-post favourite.

Former Gr1 Premier’s Champion Stakes winner Gunner is taking ages to record a third victory but has been knocking at the door of late and today could be his day when he lines up in the fourth. However, he does take on a more than useful field and exotic bet punters may be advised to added a few for insurance.

Legend took on feature company last time out but has shown consistent form since his last win and the drop in class could just bring out the best in him. Royal Armour and Seattle Skyline are others that stand out.

Bold Beauty was a recent maiden winner but has had her problems and is lightly raced. She may well prove much better than her current rating and can follow up in the fifth but again she is no betting proposition. Red Al found some strong market support in Gr1 company last time out and although not featuring, today’s opposition is way below the quality field of that run. Espresso Martini, Illuminate and Peggy’s Dream look pick of the balance.

The sixth is another open affair where Via Sacra is a weak 7-2 ante-post favourite but she comes from a stable that has hit the new season running. She is lightly raced but has never finished far back and the step up in trip, first up with a tongue-tie and a 2.5kg claimer up makes her a must for all bets.

She faces the year older poly specialist Accidental Tourist who is proven over course and distance and the Howells stable is also coming to form.

Royal Kaitrina was a beaten favourite first run back from a successful Kimberley raid but she should prove more effective over today’s trip. Marcus appears to think so two and she must have a decent chance in the seventh, although again, not a betting proposition.

A qualified maiden rounds off the afternoon where Leslies Pathtofame and Trust In Gold are the obvious contenders while Lucara and Command Respect are others to consider.

By Andrew Harrison

Ryan Munger has been appointed first jockey to Glen Kotzen and he will move from Johannesburg to Cape Town by the beginning of October.

Kotzen said: “We had been watching Ryan last season and we were quite impressed. We had a meeting with him and he accepted our offer.

“Obviously he has a lot to learn so far as the tracks and weather conditions in the Cape are concerned but this will come with time. He already has a good rapport with our owners and the horses and what is nice is that he is a natural lightweight.”

Last season Richard Fourie was retained by some of the stable’s main patrons but this term he has elected to ride freelance.

Munger,22,  was one of the busiest jockeys in the country last season with over 1 300 rides. He finished up in the top ten on the national log with 107 winners.

He said: “I’ve got plenty of winners on my CV. What I need now are feature-race winners.”

Munger only really started riding In Cape Town on anything like a regular basis towards the end of last season and was making just his third visit to the course when riding his first Kenilworth winner on the Andre Nel-trained Room At The Top in June.

He won for Kotzen on Lanza at the end of last month and on Strawberry Wine last Saturday. He has five rides for the stable at Kenilworth on Saturday plus two for Candice Bass-Robinson for whom he has a good record.

By Michael Clower

Lemaire pipped legendary Japanese jockey Yutaka Take to the crown, with Mirco Demuro completing a top-three finish for the Japan Racing Association side, who landed the team prize for a fourth consecutive year.

The French-born Lemaire, whose glittering honour roll includes the Melbourne Cup, 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas, Japan Cup and Dubai Sheema Classic, was taking part in the two-day challenge for the fifth time, in which Shane Foley, Joao Moreira and Chad Schofield were among those who featured for the World All-Star team.

Foley, out of luck in a Grade 3 and maiden race on the undercards, finished joint sixth of 14 riders on his first time competing in the event following some small stints in Japan on a short-term licence.

Richard Hughes, Johnny Murtagh and Ryan Moore are among jockeys to have landed the annual challenge in previous years.

US-based Rafael Bejarano fared best of the World All-Star team in fourth, but victory on Smart Elements sealed the top prize for Lemaire, who also rode a winner on the first day.

Lemaire said: “This is great – Sapporo is a wonderful course and I want to thank the racing fans for their support. I was really lucky to have been able to ride good horses this year.”

There was frustration for Take, who topped the standings going into the finale before finishing second for a third consecutive year.

Take, who has filled the runner-up spot seven times since last successful in 1992, said: “I’m glad I was able to win one race in the series, although I was hoping that maybe I could win the title this year.

“I was on top after the third leg so naturally I was a bit disappointed when I saw Lemaire lifting the trophy.”

– racingpost.com

Chad Schofield, son of former South African jockey Glyn, competed against Joao Moreira in the World All-Star Jockeys series in Japan last weekend, but longer-term he is hoping to help fill the void left by the Magic Man’s departure from Hong Kong.

Schofield finished fifth in the jockeys’ championship last season with 38 winners, but with three-time champion Moreira moving to Japan and Nash Rawiller disqualified, two of the riders above him are gone and opportunities have opened up.

The 24-year-old, who got engaged to his partner, Hannah, in the off-season, is entering his fourth season at Sha Tin – collecting his highest win total last campaign – and feels he is ready to take the next step.

“With the big hole Joao Moreira has left, there’s definitely more winners to be had for me especially,” Schofield said.

“I want to finish top three and just ride as many winners as I can and try to break into some of those bigger yards because I think that’s quite important in Hong Kong.

“Last week I was riding as much trackwork as I can for as many trainers as I can and just try to broaden my support base. Everyone seems to be pretty receptive so hopefully I can have a new season.

“In Hong Kong, riding against the best in the world and all that high-pressure racing, it definitely improves you as a rider and I felt every season I’ve come in better and more experienced and I just hope I can keep improving and raising the bar.”

After getting a taste of big-race success with Singapore Sling’s victory in February’s Classic Cup, Schofield wants more and he has formed a strong association with rising stars Win Beauty Win and Refined Treasure.

“The good horses in Hong Kong, they are quite hard to get on, but if you can get on a young horse going up and stay with them, it’s a lot easier,” he said.

“I feel like I do have some really nice young horses heading that way so hopefully they can stand up when the big races come around.”

While all his rivals will be racing down the Sha Tin straight (on foot) in Saturday’s preseason carnival, Schofield will blow out the cobwebs in World All-Star Jockeys event at Sapporo.

He will be aiming to be the fourth Hong Kong representative to win the event, following in the footsteps of Douglas Whyte (2004), Zac Purton (2012) and Moreira (2015).

It is Schofield’s first time riding in Japan and he has been in touch with Moreira after the Brazilian’s scintillating start to his stint there, winning 22 of his 57 rides at an astonishing 38.6 per cent.

“He’s been messaging me and told me to bring the rain gear because there’s lots of rain around but I’m looking forward to catching up with him,” Schofield said.

“A lot of the people at trackwork were saying how well he’s done and all that, but it’s no surprise to me, obviously he’s just brilliant.”

Jockey, assistant trainer and Riding Master Stephen Jupp’s career in racing has spanned five decades and he will thoroughly deserve his retirement which starts at the end of this month.

Jupp was one of the top riders of his day in an era when the competition was ultra tough.

Top jockeys Robbie Sivewright and Charlie Barends, upon seeing young Jupp playing junior soccer at the Kingsmead football club, suggested to his father he apply for the South African Jockeys Academy due to his tiny physique.

In 1972 Fourteen-year-old Jupp had never sat on a horse before but gelled with them immediately, although the Academy itself in that day was tough due to a prevalence of bullying. It took him just three months to be workriding and nine months later he had his first ride at Clairwood on the Jackie Gorton-trained Saving Grace, which finished unplaced.

His first winner was in his fourth ride on the Eileen Bestel-trained French Doll at Scottsville. Looking back he regards Scottsville as his favourite track. He recalled, “It used to have a dip at about the 1400m mark where you disappeared from view and the bend had a reverse camber so it wasn’t an easy course but I once rode five winners in a day there.”

Jupp was indentured to small-string Clairwood trainer Joe Goss, but was in demand and had 1500 odd rides as an apprentice for 156 winners, seven of them for Goss.

Among those was the Brian Cunningham-trained Amazing Grace, who in 1975 became the first filly to win the Grade 1 Smirnoff Plate. As an apprentice he also won the Kings Cup and the In Full Flight Stakes and finished second in the Gold Cup aboard the Jackie Bell-trained Compass Star.

The Oppenheimers wanted to buy the indentures from Goss but the latter refused and Jupp believes in retrospect that was probably a blessing in disguise.

However, upon becoming licensed he joined the Newmarket-based Oppenheimer stable, whose trainer was John Gorton.

The Oppenheimer’s good sires Free Ride and Wilwyn had been replaced by Ribofilio, who did not throw much, so they went through a relatively dry spell and soon closed their Newmarket stable and began using a number of trainers.

He did win the SA Oaks twice for the Oppenheimers though with Grease Paint and Torpedo Boat and also won the Jubilee Handicap for them. He went on to win the latter race three times in succession.

He had plenty of support and his big career wins which sprang to mind were the Grade 1 SA Guineas on Crimson Waves, the Racing Digest 1900 on the one-eyed Bluffing, he twice won the Grade 1 Ok Gold Bowl, on The Monk and Honey Chunk respectively, the SA Derby on Kadarko, the Keith Hepburn twice, on First City, owned by Bles Bridges, and on Susan’s Dream, and he also won the Grade 1 SA Fillies Sprint on the latter, and he won the Grade 1 Natal Derby twice, including on Fire Arch.

However, he said his best memory in racing was his victory on the Roy Magner-trained Leopard Strike in the first million rand race in SA, the Bloodline Million.

He recalled, “Leopard Strike was the most expensive horse in the race, costing R250,000, and I was so confident I told Roy Magner to put his wages on.”

His best finishes in the July were third on Violero and fourth on Tickets And Tax and he finished third in the Met twice, on Brief Affair and Bluffing respectively.

Jupp’s career was cut short when he injured his back in a fall at Randjesfotein one morning at the age of just 38.

He had ridden with a selection of South African greats like Gerald Turner, Martin Schoeman, Raymond Rhodes and David Cave in Johannesburg, Michael Roberts and Johnny McCreedy in KZN and Garth Puller and Karl Neisius in the Cape, among many others.

He said, “In Johannesburg a trainer could throw his colours in the jockeys room and would not mind who picked them up. In KZN Muis (Roberts) was different division and was just about unbeatable at Greyville.”

He remembered the Cape trainers, Terrance Millard, Theo de Klerk and Jackie Bell as being top class and in Johannesburg he had ridden for the like of Ormond and David Ferraris and Jean Heming and he named Clairwood trainer Jackie Gorton as “a legend”.
Jupp also rode in Mauritius for five months for Sir Guyton Duval and had a number of winners.

Top trainer Charles Laird offered Jupp a job a year after his retirement from the saddle.

He was assistant to Laird for eleven years, including in his SA Championship-winning year, and ran his KZN satellite yard at Clairwood before Laird moved down from Johannesburg. He was thus associated with many great horses like Vodacom Durban July winner Hunting Tower, Lion Tamer, Warm White Night, Oracy, Rebel King and many others. He recalled Laird as being a master of planning target races for horses, no matter whether they were top class or lesser thoroughbreds. He said the other key to his success was the “hard-working Anton Marcus.”

Upon Clairwood being closed, Jupp applied for a position as riding master at the Academy and was there for six seasons. “I loved teaching the youngsters,” he said.

Drumming in “the basics” was his first goal. He mentioned current champion jockey Lyle Hewitson as being easy to work with as “he had good manners and listened, he was not a big shot.”

Donovan Dillon, Callan Murray, Keagan de Melo, Ashton Arries, Eric Ngwane and Serino Moodley are other talented riders he has worked with and he mentioned Khanya Sakayi as a rider who had become prominent among the claiming apprentices due to “sheer hard work.”

Jupp’s son Calvin followed him into jockeyship but had to stop due to an ankle injury and his other son Darren has a fire protection company where Stephen might now help out in while enjoying his retirement.

By David Thiselton