With the current season barely past halfway the race for the various titles are wide open. Anthony Delpech leads the Jockey’s Championship with latest National Horseracing Authority figures having him four ahead of former champion Andrew Fortune. Delpech leads with 121 winners from Fortune’s 117.

Delpech has recently split from the Mike de Kock yard as retained rider and although he will still take mounts for the stable his is now a free agent and can keep his nose in front.

Close behind are S’Manga Khumalo on 113 and Muzi Yeni just cracking the century mark. Anton Marcus has the highest strike rate of all riders with 24% of his rides making it to the winner’s enclosure but he tends to cherry-pick his mounts and he has ridden 85 winners from his 342 mounts. Delpech is close behind on 23%, his 121 winners coming from 555 rides.

Fortune, Khumalo and Yeni have all had over 700 rides, Fortune topping the list with 784 mounts. These three have also adopted a policy of ‘have saddle will travel’.

Current champion Gavin Lerena is a winner behind Marcus on 84 for the season but on Sunday left to continue his career in Hong Kong where he has landed a contract as Club Jockey to the Hong Kong Jockey Club so will not be defending his title.

On the training front the race for the title looks a three-way contest between Justin Snaith, current champion Sean Tarry and Mike Bass, multiple Western Cape Champion but yet to win a national title.

Snaith is 30 winners ahead of Tarry but the title is based on stakes won. Snaith 133 winners have garnered R11,574 million with Tarry’s 103 winner’s having earned R11,276 million. Bass is only R500 00 behind Snaith, his earnings coming from just 65 winners but with a high percentage of placed runners.

With stakes from restricted races also counted, Glen Puller finds himself in fourth spot on the log with R8 992 million from just eight winners courtesy of Illuminator’s victory in the CTS Million Dollar last month.

Tarry would appear to hold the whip-hand at this stage of the season with the lucrative Highveld autumn season pending and a stable loaded with potential. Snaith will not have many runners on the Highveld and will likely concentrate his energies in preparing his string for the South African Champions Season that starts in KZN in May and continues for three months to the end of the season.

The retirement of Futura will have removed one string from Snaith’s feature race bow but quadruple Grade 1 winner Legislate is to race in Durban before retiring to stud at the end of the season. The Rising Sun Gold Challenge, which he won last year, is a possible objective.

Ryan Munger, Craig Zackey and Callan Murray are spate by a single winner in the apprentice log with Munger on 32 winners and Zackey and Murry on 31 each. However, Munger and Zackey came out of their time at the end of January.

By Andrew Harrison

Negroamaro is 14-10 favourite in early betting for the joint first leg of the Wilgerbosdrift Triple Tiara while you can write your own ticket about Crystal Glamour.

“I don’t say Crystal Glamour can beat Negroamaro. She’ll be hard to beat because she’s obviously such a smart filly. But Negroamaro might be looking for a touch further and it’ll depend on the pace. If she fluffs her lines, my filly has as big a chance as any.

“Crystal Glamour is a beautiful horse who packs a lot of class and, the way she’s been working, I think she’ll definitely finish in the first three,” said Alexander.

“Draw a line through her last run because she was drawn very wide in the Three Troikas Stakes and didn’t get cover. She over-raced three deep all the way round the turn and just ran out of steam. She’s drawn midfield this time so things will be easier.”

This two-time winner from four career starts finished 14th behind Madame Dubois in that race – her worst run yet. Alexander points to an earlier race as key to her chances. That was in the Bloodstock SA Ready To Run Cup in October when Crystal Glamour finished a neck second to Lineker over 1400m. “That was a very good run in only her second start,” said Alexander.

This will be her first race over further than 1450m but Alexander believes she will get the trip easily and, depending on how she comes out of the Fillies Guineas, will probably even enjoy the 1800m of the Wilgerbosdrift Fillies Classic in early April.

That race forms the second leg of the Wilgerbosdrift Triple Tiara, with the Wilgerbosdrift SA Oaks on Champions Day as the final race in the series. “We’ll take it one step at a time,” said her trainer. “These races are hard for some of these young horses.”

Alexander has the fourth favourite in the R1-million Gauteng Guineas, Champagne Haze – a 6-1 chance behind Brazuca, Abashiri and New Predator.

This three-time winner beat top-class Rabada by three lengths in the Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup in a time that equates to about three lengths faster than Lineker won the Bloodstock SA Ready To Run Cup over the same course and distance on the same day in October.

Then rested, he needed his comeback run and he did well last time out in the Tony Ruffel Stakes, finishing a 0.50-length second to Suyoof, who he meets now on 2kg better terms.

He is slightly better drawn this time, while Mike de Kock’s runner has drawn out wide at No 16, and Alexander said: “Champagne Haze has come through his preparation well. So far, so good. With a bit of luck in running he’ll also finish in the first three.”

Alexander believes 1600m might be Champagne Haze’s optimal trip, although he did suggest the other two legs of the SA Triple Crown, the SA Classic over 1800m and the SA Derby over 2450m, would not be out of the question if his charge did well in this race.

“We’ll take it one race at a time with him, too,” said the Turffontein-based trainer.

In the Acacia Handicap (Grade 3) at the same meeting, Alexander will send out Shepard One, who he thinks will be well suited to the 1600m. “She’s a runner,” he said.

He also believes his charge The Elmo Effect has a “place shout” in the Aquanaut Handicap (Listed) over 2450m.

The final fields for the Hawaii Stakes, the Acacia Handicap and the Aquanaut Stakes will be finalised tomorrow. (TABnews)

Gauteng Guineas betting: 28-10 Brazuca; 7-2 Abashiri; 5-1 New Predator; 6-1 Champagne Haze; 8-1 Muwaary; 10-1 Suyoof; 14-1 Rocketball; 16-1 Lunar Approach, Liege; 20-1 Romany Prince, Le Clos; 25-1 Celtic Captain; 33-1 Rikitikitana; 40-1 Malak El Moolook; 66-1 Ole Gunnar, Coral Fever.

Gauteng Fillies Guineas betting: 14-10 Negroamaro; 6-1 She’s A Dragon; 9-1 Princess Varunya; 10-1 Polyphonic; 12-1 Frosty Friday, Alexa; 14-1 Juxtapose; 16-1 Penny Serenade; 22-1 Heaps Of Fun; 25-1 Khonza, Bella Sonata, Christmas Carol; 28-1 Melliflora; 33-1 Persian Rug, Crystal Glamour, Jungle Mist; 40-1 Lala.

Jockey Ian Sturgeon has never quite received the support he deserves and last Thursday at the Vaal proved this point when picking up three rides originally booked to two of the country’s most sort after riders, Piere Strydom and Anthony Delpech, and bringing all of them home, plus another, to clinch his first career four-timer.

However, the ride everybody was talking about was aboard Kanonkop, whose mere participation was saved by Sturgeon’s act of selflessness as he clung to the rein and managed to stop the horse after it had burst through the stalls and dropped him.

Sturgeon said, “The handler was still holding on to the rein … that is why I usually ask them to rather let it go … so he burst through awkwardly. Luckily I landed on my feet and started hopping next to him. Thank goodness he responded when I asked him to slow down. You can stop a horse, it’s not like it hasn’t happened before, although he is a big horse. He had a little graze on his nose but thank goodness the vet allowed him to race.”

Sturgeon had thus preserved the favourite’s participation in the race.

He continued, “I then thought he might be concussed because he wasn’t really getting into the race. From halfway he got into it and then I couldn’t get a split. Luckily S’manga’s horses rolled off the rail and he went through it and won a good race.”

Kanonkop gave Sturgeon a quick double, after he had won on the second favourite Shelly from an unfavourable low draw in the first. He then clinched a quick hattrick in the third, when getting the  favourite Musical Romance up from another unfavourable low draw.

Later, he made it a four-timer when powering clear on the third favourite Nesspresso in the fifth.

He had won more ride to come, but unfortunately the last two races were abandoned.

In analysing the mild mannered Sturgeon’s relative lack of big yard support, he has perhaps been unfortunate to have a phlegmatic demeanour, whilst on the inside being by nature the exact opposite.

However, he has now curbed his habit of being excessively critical of his own riding and said, “It dents your confidence. I am learning not to think about things too much and no longer over analyse. I am talking myself up instead of down.”

Sturgeon still has a burning desire to be Champion Jockey and would like to reach a stage whereby he can be more selective about the rides he accepts.

He is currently forced to take as many rides as possible to covers costs and this has dragged his strike rate down. Whilst he is calculating how a specific race will pan out in order to give him his best chance, a top jockey is doing the same thing with the aim of choosing which ride he is going to take.

Sturgeon also revealed something very interesting regarding “the going” and the false perception among armchair critics that only the best jockeys seem to take special notice of it.

He said virtually all jockeys watch the replays in the jockeys’ room of the races just run, so were acutely aware of where the best going was. However, he added if a jockey was “sitting with a lot of horse you can usually manipulate the situation easier and be where you want to be.” Therefore the more fancied horse usually find the better going. Weaker horses on the other hand are often unable to hold their favourable positions in the running. Armchair critics will invariably blame the jockey for this and it is probably another factor which keeps the lower ranked riders suppressed.

As Felix Coetzee said earlier this week, jockeys find themselves in a catch 22 situation because they need to be rated to be given good rides, but need good rides to be rated.

However, Sturgeon, who is lying in 12^th place on the current log with 51 winners, said, “You also have to make opportunities for yourself. The guys who have risen make fewer mistakes, that’s why they get the chances. But if you are confident you do make less mistakes, so you have to try and generate that confidence.”

Sturgeon, who had his first race ride in 2001, gave an inkling of just how deep his resolve is in 2010 when booking himself for a month into the renowned Kenako Golf and Sports Academy in George in order to learn both physical and mental techniques to improve himself as a professional sportsman.

Sturgeon was once stable jockey to Michael Roberts, whom many regard as South Africa’s greatest ever rider, and he still attributes a lot to him.

He said, “Michael basically taught me how to ride. He liked my style and taught me everything about pace. I can’t count like the Hong Kong Jockeys learn to, so do it all on feel, and I have found I get it 99% right.”

Sturgeon feels he has improved since moving to Johannesburg.

He has an astute and passionate racing man on his side in the form of jockey agent Bradley McHardy. Bradley is the son of Rathmor Stud owners Mike and Tanya and is now assistant trainer to Duncan Howells, having previously been a sort after pre-trainer as well as being an accomplished showjumper.

Sturgeon has twice gone close to achieving the breakthrough he desires, finishing runner up in the Vodacom Durban July on Sushisan in 2006 and on Punta Arenas last year.

“Success breeds success,” he concluded and last Thursday he certainly proved he is ready to fill the boots of the top echelon riders.

By David Thiselton

On Saturday the highly regarded Abashiri will face the first leg of his bid for Triple Crown glory, but down in the Cape his sire Go Deputy has virtually been abandoned by breeders despite his continually good statistics.

Abashiri’s trainer Mike Azzie has called the magnificently long-striding bay gelding the best he has trained since National Currency, a three-time Gr 1-winning sprinter who finished second in the Gr 1 Hong Kong Sprint to the great Silent Witness.

Abashiri has a genuine chance of landing the Triple Crown, although the first leg on Saturday, the Gr 2 Betting World Gauteng Guineas, will probably be his toughest  obstacle as he would prefer further.

Yet, Go Deputy only covered two mares this past season. Both were sent by the stud which own and stand him, Lammerskraal Stud.

Lammerskraal’s long-time stud manager Sally Jourdan said, “His sire Deputy Minister was a champion racehorse, a champion sire and a champion broodmare sire. Breeders just don’t recognise him for what he is and it is hard to resurrect a stallion. But, if Abashiri does really well we will try and promote him again.”

Jourdan added Lammerskraal’s new owner Pieter Graaff only races two or three horses from each crop, otherwise Go Deputy would have received more mares.

She also spoke of her keen anticipation of the progeny of Go Deputy’s daughters, as she believes like his father he will be an outstanding broodmare sire.

Among his daughters with nice looking youngsters to date is the three-time Listed-winning stayer Adobe Pink, who has a foal by What A Winter, the champion sprinter by Lammerskraal’s late great Western Winter.

Abashiri comes from Go Deputy’s 2012 crop, the season in which he covered 50 mares, and was purchased for R400,000 at the National Yearling Sales.

Also among his 2012 crop is Flying Ice, a Listed winner who finished second in Saturday’s Gr 3 Prix du Cap, beating a few significant four-year-old members of what many believe to be  the greatest female crop in South African history.

Significantly, Go Deputy’s progeny improve notably with age. Following progeny of this sire after they have turned four years of age always reaps dividends, so his excellent 2012 crop still have plenty to come.

As it is he has the highest percentage of black type winners to runners in the country this season at 6,8%.

The other Black Type winner among them is Current Event, who won the Gr 3 Grandwest Cape Summer Stayers Handicap over 2500m. Go Deputy has a high figure of about 41% winners to runners this season and they have average earning of R45,552 per runner.

Abashiri’s deserving owners are Adriaan and Rika van Vuuren. The couple are among the biggest spenders at the Sales in the country and as Abashiri is likely the best they have purchased there must still be hope for Go Deputy.

By David Thiselton

Picture: Abashiri (Nkosi Hlophe)

Futura has been retired to stand at Drakenstein Stud but fellow quadruple Grade 1 winner Legislate is to race in Durban before joining him before the end of the season. The Rising Sun Gold Challenge (June 11), which he won last year, is a possible objective.

The office of part-owner and stallion manager John Freeman issued  the details on Friday afternoon, saying that most of the shares had been sold overnight and adding: “The plan is to send Legislate to Durban for another attempt at Grade 1 glory in either or both of the two Grade 1 weight-for-age events there.”

Justin Snaith paid tribute to Futura, saying: “He was a very good and very impressive racehorse. He has everything a stallion needs, including temperament and soundness, and he is by a great sire.”

By Michael Clower

Picture: Futura (Nkosi Hlophe)