Pleasedtomeetyou, who looked so good when winning effortlessly on debut at Kenilworth last Saturday, has made a big impression on the handicappers. They have introduced him into the merit ratings at 92, a far higher figure than trainer Andre Nel envisaged.

After winning with Hello Summer at Durbanville yesterday, Nel said: “I think they have punished him unbelievably and I am considering whether to appeal.

“I know that the time was almost half a second faster than the Pinnacle on the same day but they should rate him on what he beat and four of those were unraced.”

The Querari colt appeared a really smart sort in the making at the time but, when viewed again in the cold light of Monday evening’s Winning Ways programme, he seemed considerably better than that – possibly even a Guineas horse. The James Goodman/Paul Lafferty combination had no hesitation in nominating him as one to follow. Punters may not have all that long to wait because Nel has already been looking through the programme.

He said: “Pleasedtomeetyou came out of his race very well, and as if he had hardly raced. We will pick his next race carefully but there could be something for him around September 11.”

Certainly punters could do with something to latch onto after being knocked for six in the first race yesterday as surely as if they had been taking on A.B. de Villiers.

Rock Trip, a horse with about as much form as a blank sheet of paper, led inside the final furlong under Ryan Munger to score by a neck at 55-1 with barely a rand on her. To add insult to financial injury odds-on favourite Happy Girl, who could manage no better than fourth, came from the same stable – that of Candice Bass-Robinson.

She was in Johannesburg to inspect the near 450-horses in the National Two Year Old Sale. Her brother Mark said: “This was a big surprise to us but Rock Trip ran in the wet last time, she didn’t enjoy it at all and finished 16 lengths back seventh of nine. Today the leaders went a hell of a pace and all the fancied horses fell in a hole.”

By Michael Clower

Mark Khan is becoming a familiar face in KZN and as a good friend of the late Alec Forbes, Khan is often booked by Alec’s widow Lezeanne. The combination can get today’s Greyville card off to a winning start with the filly Roy’s Marlin.

It was all hands on deck at Scottsville last Sunday with some long-shot results and today’s poly card doesn’t look much easier.

Roy’s Marlin had shown little in a dozen starts, three modest places to be exact, before being tried in blinkers for the first time. She was coming at them late when third behind Spiffy over course and distance last time out and the presence of Khan in the saddle could see her home.

Candy Galore could prove the biggest threat as she was not friendless in the market on debut and showed up well.

Internet Kid has had many chances but has been running consistently well and should be a cast-iron PA banker in the opening leg.

He was touched off when trying to make all last time out and Anton Marcus has taken over in the saddle.

Kinglassie has been consistent since joining Kom Naidoo at the beginning of the year from Charles Laird but has been struggling to get it all together. Marcus was a regular for Laird and is sure to have some inkling as to how Kinglassie’s ability. Marcus is a master on the poly track and Kinglassie can get home ahead of Pashtoosh and Face Of An Angel.

My Zinzara, winner of her last two, is a luke-warm 3-1 favourite for the fourth and that just about sums of the card. My Zinzara has won both of her starts since being fitted with blinkers but three on the trot may be stretching it a bit and Breaking Barriers can snap her winning streak.

Dennis Drier’s filly has her third run after a break and she was close-up behind the useful Pearl Glow last time out.

Shane Humby doesn’t run them often but when he does it’s worth sitting up and taking note.

Socrates is a four-year-old with only five starts under his girth, his last two being wins. As mentioned, three on the trot is mostly a difficult ask but with hardly any miles on the clock, Socrates could go in again.

In a country where precocious speed dominates, Go Deputy is an under rated sire of stayers and Viking Red is only just coming into his own as a five-year-old. His last two starts were over a ‘mile’ and the extra furlong today should suit Frank Robinson’s gelding.

Humby saddles Roman Courtesan in the seventh and the mare should be cherry-ripe having her third run after a break. She has done well on the poly and maybe the pick in another competitive handicap.

Marcus could round off the afternoon for Mike Miller aboard Global Pursuit. The gelding shows good pace but tends to lack a little extra when challenged. His best recent effort has been on the poly and if Marcus can get him to settle he could prove difficult to peg back.

By Andrew Harrison

Hayley Turner believes a second Shergar Cup win for the Girls team in four years proves female jockeys do not need a weight allowance to be competitive in Britain.

Turner, Josephine Gordon and Hollie Doyle got the better of Great Britain and Ireland, Europe and the Rest of the World at Ascot on Saturday, just as she, Sammy Jo Bell and Emma-Jayne Wilson did in 2015.

“We’ve had some good girls riding over the years and I don’t think our success surprises anybody, it’s quite normal,” said the jockey, who also won the Alistair Haggis Silver Saddle for the top-scoring individual rider at the meeting.

Turner, 35, has ridden in France, where the introduction of a weight allowance – now 1.5kg on the Flat – last year to help women jockeys was a key reason why she returned to riding, having retired in the autumn of 2015 before returning the following year to mix race-riding with her media work.

Pointing to the evidence of the Shergar Cup, she said: “It shows we don’t need an allowance over here. The allowance in France has certainly increased the number of girls riding, but I don’t think it’s something that needs to be brought in over here. We can compete on level terms.”

Turner was speaking little more than a month after the launch of British racing’s first Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan, one of the aims of which was to support and promote opportunities for female jockeys and assess whether further action was needed to ensure they are given fair and equal opportunities compared to male counterparts.

Turner was making her 12th appearance at the Shergar Cup and is a big fan of the unique event.

“It was amazing, such a fun day,” she said. “They put on such a good show every year and I’m lucky to be involved.”

– Racingpost.com

South African Group 1 winner Noah From Goa atoned from his defeat on debut by scoring a resounding all-the-way victory that was a truer reflection of his potential in the $125,000 Better Than Ever 2010 Stakes, a Kranji Stakes A race over 1800m on Sunday.

The 2015 Cape Guineas winner was launched over a similar Kranji Stakes A race, but over 1200m at his Singapore debut five weeks ago. Donning blinkers on that day, the Tiger Ridge six-year-old was like a fish out of water, not to mention he got galloped into and returned with cuts to his near-fore.

A first-up defeat from a much-hyped galloper is always hard to grapple with, but trainer Ricardo le Grange copped it on the chin, and to his credit, did not dwell on it, confident in his horse’s ability to bounce back.

The South African handler did away with the headgear second-up, and also stretched the chestnut out to a more suitable trip. Chuck in a rousing barrier trial win (August 2) in between, and the machine was ready to rumble.

That he did in brilliant fashion on Sunday, under the guidance of Nooresh Juglall. The Mauritian jockey, who was also aboard at his first Kranji outing, did not hold back when he noticed the other seven runners’ reluctance to go forward.

From the moment Noah From Goa took charge, it became increasingly clear they would be hard-pressed to run him down in the home straight.

A delighted Le Grange could breathe better after such a scintillating performance from possibly the best-credentialled horse he was given since he took over Patrick Shaw at the end of 2016.

“Like I said, I learned a lot from the horse. After his first run, I’ve gone back and done things that worked the right way for him,” he said.

“I’ve put this first run behind and it’s great the horse has won today. To do this at his second run after a lengthy break while giving weight to his rivals, it was a really decent effort.

“I’ve got a few people to thank now. First of all, big thanks to Mike de Kock who sent me such a good horse to train.

“It’s also a great honour to train for Mary Slack and her daughter Jessica. They are famous owners and top breeders back home.

“I would also like to thank Nooresh who rode a cracker. He allowed the horse to dictate and that went in our favour.

“I also have to thank his track rider Ayie who rides him every day. Ayie’s a proper rider and you need someone like him to ride a quirky horse like Noah From Goa.”

-thoroughbrednews.com.au

Lyle Hewitson burst to prominence soon after joining the apprentice ranks in March 2016 but few would have envisaged him being crowned national champion jockey in just his second full season as a professional rider.

He becomes the first since the great Michael Roberts to win the national jockeys championship while still an apprentice. Roberts achieved the feat in the 1972-73 season although he attained his full jockey’s license in June of 1973.

Therefore, at tonight’s Equus Awards, Hewitson will become the first to receive the national champion jockey trophy while still an apprentice since Gerald Turner did so in the 1960s. Hewitson is currently recovering from a knee injury but the good news is he will not require surgery and expects to be back in the saddle in about four weeks time.

He said yesterday, “There is quite a bit of bone bruising and there is a hairline fracture and a strained ligament, but it will heal by itself. I will make sure I am 100% before coming back.”

He is receiving physiotherapy as well as sitting in an oxygen chamber and receiving Tecar heat therapy in order to speed up the healing.

He expects to be able to ride in the Jockeys International in Singapore on September 25. He will be team South African together with Muzi Yeni and Aldo Domeyer and will be taking on Team Australia, Team UK and Team Asia.

Hewitson said the reality of being champion jockey had not really sunk in yet but admitted, “When going down to the start and hearing the commentator saying ‘Lyle Hewiston, the champion jockey elect’, it caused goose bumps. It is also great knowing there is still more to work on.”

Hewitson said he had never had the championships in mind at the beginning of the season but his goal had rather been to ride a Grade 1 winner. He had appeared booked for second place in the championship before the reigning champion and runaway leader Anthony Delpech’s horror season-ending fall at Turffontein in the SA Classic on April 7. Hewitson had at that stage ridden 105 winners and was 31 behind Delpech and was eight ahead of third-placed Muzi Yeni. He hit the front on May 13 when riding a double at Greyville and looked a certainty for the title as he was by now 28 clear of Yeni. However, there looked to be a chance he would become probably the first champion jockey in history to have never won a Grade 1, a tag he would not have wanted.

That all changed about a month later, also at Greyville, when bringing home the Brett Crawford-trained Undercover Agent in the Rising Sun Gold Challenge. His feeling was not one of relief but rather that “the floodgates can now open.” He duly scored a second Grade 1 winner on Vodacom Durban July day on Redberry Lane in the Jonsson Workwear Garden Province Stakes. He ranked this his ride of the season and recalled, “I had done well on her. She is such an honest filly and it was also for Sean Tarry who has done so much for me. I went in feeling it would be hard to beat Snowdance but Redberry Lane is a good frontrunner and I felt maybe if I stole a couple of lengths we had a chance. It didn’t unfold that way as she didn’t quite have the gatespeed of Snowdance and others and we ended up fifth in the running, so I had to go to Plan B. I just punched away in the straight and she dug down deep and got her head down. It was very satisfying that things did not go our way but we adapted and it worked out, a fantastic feeling.”

Doing it on July day made it all the more special as a lot of friends had been watching.

His ride on Undercover Agent was also memorable as this horse has a tendency to be strong in the running and despite the crawling early pace he managed to settle him after 150 metres. The big three-year-old colt consequently found enough extra to power all the way to the line.

Hewitson spoke about the vital skill of being able to settle a strong horse, “You have to trust the horse to come back to you without fighting the horse. It is all about feel and it is probably something which comes naturally, it becomes second nature.”

Hewitson said the cherry on the top of his season would have been to score a third Grade 1 on Return Flight. She had always been his ride but he was sidelined when she won the Thekwini on the last day of the season.

He named Return Flight, the ever-improving Chimichuri Run, Celtic Sea, Saturday’s impressive debut winner In The Dance, his favourite horse, Africa Rising, and Lord Silverio as some of the horses to follow from the Tarry yard this season.

Hewitson grinded away when second choice in the yard to S’Manga Khumalo and when the latter was off injured, he grabbed the opportunity with both hands. He felt when Khumalo came back they were both getting an equal share of the rides and it was down to which rider Tarry regarded as more suitable for a specific horse.

Hewitson rode 185 winners in the season winners at a strike rate of 12,59%. He rode 99 winners on the Highveld, 57 in Port Elizabeth, 24 in KZN, three in the Western Cape and two in Kimberley. He felt the season could have been even better if the Tarry yard had not hit a two month dry spell.

On his long term goals he said, “It will be tough defending the title as I will have lost a couple of months, but I aim to ride more Group 1s and if an offer to ride overseas comes that would be high on the agenda.”

By David Thiselton