Four winners this past weekend kept Duncan Howells on track to regaining the KZN Champion Trainer’s title relinquished to Dennis Drier last season. But with half the season still to run and a lead of only six over Drier there is still a long way to go.

Howells has saddled 38 winners in KZN this term opposed to Drier’s 32 but the chasing pack is in hot pursuit. Sean Tarry (29) and Dean Kannemeyer (28) are not far back while Charles Laird and Gavin van Zyl are bracketed on 26. The local championship is based on wins in KZN and although Mike de Kock is third on the list as far as stakes earned is concerned, he is currently sitting on 20 winners.

Cosmic Light (Nkosi Hlophe)

Howells’s two smart fillies Same Jurisdiction and Cosmic Light are safely back from the Western Cape and will be aimed at Champions Season features along with the promising Ten Gun Salute and Sylvester The Cat.

Cosmic Light, second in the Gr 2 Sceptre Stakes, has the Gr1 SA Fillies Sprint on her agenda while Same Jurisdiction’s intended schedule is the Gr 1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge and to hopefully defend her Gr 1 Jonsson Workwear Garden province title.

Howells said Smart Call’s Met win reiterated once again the quality of last season’s three-year-old fillies. “In any other year three or four of those fillies would have been an undisputed champion,” mused Howells. “So just how good was Majmu. She smashed them all.”

Ten Gun Salute showed a smart turn of foot to win the Gr3 Michael Roberts Handicap last Sunday against some seasoned opposition. “He’s progressive but I don’t really know how good he is,” said Howells. “Champion’s Season will tell. We will try the Guineas and the Daily News and if he shows that he’s good enough, maybe the July.”

Sylvester The Cat was his Grand Parade Cape Guineas hope but all plans went out of the window when he refused to jump in his warm-up for the race. The vet was called in and ‘Sylvester’ has since been through the starting stalls twice without incident since his pocket was picked.

Another to be two stone lighter this week is Mac De Lago. “He just didn’t jump (in the Met),” said Weiho Marwing. “He’s never done it before so I don’t know what his problem was. He’s got tons of ability but he’s just not putting it in so the vet comes this week. After that we will see how he goes.”

By Andrew Harrison

Greg Cheyne could be riding again early next season if the bones in his crushed right foot heal the way his doctors believe they will.

Cheyne, now on crutches and wearing a surgical boot, said: “The boot has to be non-weight bearing for the first six weeks and then it stays on for a further six before the rehabilitation starts. That will last for between three and five months.

Greg Cheyne (Liesl King)

“The doctors recommend six months – and ideally eight – before I start riding again. I must not put my foot in a stirrup until everything is 100% healed because the area where the breaks are takes the weight.”

Cheyne, 39, suffered seven fractures and two dislocations when his foot was crushed against the metalwork of the pens riding two-year-old Mount Keith at Kenilworth on December 27. Two of the breaks were shattered and the doctors at the Kingsbury Hospital in Claremont inserted four plates and a pin 12 days later when they also performed three fusions.

The 2009 Durban July-winning jockey said: “I had to stay in bed for three weeks to keep the foot elevated and those were some of the worst times because I would see horses winning and think ‘I should have been riding that.’

“But I have had serious injuries before [including a broken bone in his back] and I learned then that you just have to accept it.”

The financial cost is eased by his insurance and medical aid policies funded from riding percentages. Jockeys get 10% of winning stakes and a tenth of this is deducted for the policies. So is a seventh of the 7% they earn on place stakes

Cheyne calculates that only the top jockeys earn enough to cover the full cost of the premiums with the operators subsidising the balance for the rest. “It is one of the best jockey insurance schemes in the world,” he said.

By Michael Clower

Knight Of Glory can get punters off to a winning start at a decent price when racing returns to Durbanville for the first time in 15 weeks today.

Joey Ramsden’s three-year-old might not look the most obvious candidate for the opening maiden after being beaten over ten lengths last time but the talented Orion Quest romped home over seven clear that day and, taking him out of the way, Bernard Fayd’Herbe’s mount put up a performance that is good enough to give him a chance. He has a decent draw, has run well here in the past and appeals at the 4-1 Betting World opened him yesterday.

Joey Ramsden (Kenilworth Racing)

French Captain opened second favourite at 28-10 even though he has been off since November. Mike Stewart runs three including 5-1 shot Ravishing Lad who has been running over further. “Aldo Domeyer said to drop him back in trip,” explains the Noordhoek trainer. “But watch out for his brother Ravishing Boy (10-1). He will be a bit green on the bend but he is a seriously nice horse.”

Indonesia has each way claims at 10-1 despite unseating her rider at the start last time. “She had never done that before and we have since put a hood on and she was fine,” says Harold Crawford.

State Ballet showed much improved form on Queen’s Plate day and opened favourite at 5-2. However that was in a work riders’ race and she may have been flattered by the result. Like Janis (10-1) is better than her recent showing would suggest but Ronnie Sheehan is not optimistic, saying: “Maybe a place chance. She has been disappointing.”

Tell Me More looks particularly well handicapped in race two and the 22-10 favourite has this at his mercy if Grant van Niekerk can persuade him to jump on terms. He would have won last time but for losing a good three lengths at the gate. Ominously he was also slowly away on his previous start.

Ovar (28-10) is probably the main danger as 8-1 chance Breathless Bertie’s three wins in two months have sent him rocketing up the ratings. “You can never tell with him,” Stewart cautions. “I worked him on the beach on Saturday and his rider couldn’t pull him up.”

Secret Plan’s form warrants her 18-10 price in race three but that looks short considering her ten draw and in the circumstances the consistent Prudence Prevails makes more appeal at 4-1.

Justin Snaith is the leading trainer at Durbanville so far this season and he has a 20% strike rate. His Bora Bora looks the one in the Racing.It’s A Rush Maiden (race four) even though Fayd’Herbe has opted to partner Hammie’s Game (10-1) for Mike Bass.

“The blinkers were the problem last time and that’s why we are taking them off,” says Snaith. “I’m hoping Grant gets on with him.”

Van Niekerk is the leading jockey at the country course this term along with Corne Orffer – both have ridden 13 winners. Bora Bora is the 22-10 favourite although Orffer’s mount Rock On Geordies (9-2) and Andre Nel’s Master Runner (6-1) also have sound claims.

By Michael Clower

The handicappers have raised J&B Met winner Smart Call’s merit rating nine points to 121 after she put in officially the best performance by a filly in South Africa since the merit rating system was introduced here just before the turn of the century.

Smart Call is a member of one of the strongest female crops in South African history, if not the strongest in terms of depth, and she didn’t just beat the best males in the land on Saturday, she annihilated them and appeared to do it effortlessly.

If Legal Eagle had been used as the line horse she would have been accorded a 122, but the handicappers observed a number of horses had run exactly to their ratings, including the like of Punta Arenas and Gold Onyx, when compared to the performances of Captain America and Paterfamilias, so the latter pair were used as the measure.

Legal Eagle was said by the handicappers to have run to his 120 merit rating in the L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate and in the Met he confirmed form with all of the horses he had beaten in the former race, including Captain America, the disappointing pair Legislate and Futura, Gold Onyx, King Of Pain and Master Sabina.

Smart Call (Liesl King)

The only horse who could possibly detract from Smart Call’s win on Saturday would be the 4,8 length fourth-placed Light The Lights, who ran way above his 101 merit rating. However, he has always been talented and gelding has seen him realising his potential. The handicappers have duly raised him 10 points to 111.

Futura has been dropped two points to 117 after two disappointing runs in succession and the stallion paddock might be calling for him as he has little left to prove.

Smart Call was receiving a 2,5kg female allowance and 0,5kg four-year-old allowance on Saturday but also had to carry the 2kg Gr 1 penalty which all of Legal Eagle, Captain America, Legislate, Futura and Master Sabina had to carry, and she won by 3,5 lengths.

The filly Igugu’s J&B Met (2012) and Vodacom Durban July (2011)-winning performances were not as good as Smart Call’s on paper and neither was River Jetez’s 2010 Met win.

Ipi Tombe, like Igugu, won the July as a three-year-old but it was in a blanket finish, so she would not have been accorded a very high performance rating, although she did then go on to prove herself on the world stage.

The filly sprinters Val De Ra and Alboran Sea both had weight for age Gr 1 victories over horses who went on to be rated 121 and 120 respectively i.e. What A Winter and Captain Of All, but those victories came before the latter pair had reached those heights.

The great Empress Club destroyed the boys on a number of occasions in Gr 1 races, including beating July winner Flaming Rock in both the Queen’s Plate and the Met, and Smart Call likely has some way to go to be put alongside her, but the former ran in the days before merit ratings existed.

Smart Call is now on her way to the Breeders Cup and that stage will be the ultimate test of whether the handicappers have rated the cream of South African racing correctly.

By David Thiselton

Eric Sands’ Cape Town yard has played host to Met winner Smart Call, Queen’s Plate hero Legal Eagle and several other stars including Same Jurisdiction in recent weeks, with their trainers repeatedly singing the Milnerton trainer’s praises.

Eric Sands (hamishNIVENPhotography)

But Sands is concerned that the credit is not going to the right people and said yesterday: “I help where I can but I no more deserve credit for this than I deserve the blame when things go wrong. It is the visiting assistant trainers and their staff who do the work and the successes are due to them.”

Sands is no stranger to big race victories in his own name having won three Cape Flying Championships and Mercury Sprints, two Cape Derbies,  the Cape Fillies Guineas, Paddock and Champion Stakes.

Paul Lafferty reports that last season’s Cape Guineas runner-up Harry’s Son will have his next Dubai race at Meydan on February 25. Lafferty was thrilled with the four-year-old’s second to Safety Check in the Group 2 Al Fahidi Fort, the colt’s first race for nearly ten months.

Lohnromance, forced to miss the Klawervlei Majorca by an over-reach, is back in light work and has the Prix du Cap at Kenilworth on February 20 as a possible target.

Andre Nel said: “That is if she gets in and she might struggle to do that. She is only rated 73 and the race is normally quite full.”

The AUS$550 000 purchase has not been easy to train but she has won both her starts with consummate ease.

Last season’s Cape Nursery winner Captain Chaos has been gelded. It was not a straightforward operation because he is a rig but he is progressing well.

Ronnie Sheehan said: “He is now back in full work. There is no race for him at the moment so I will have to run him in an ordinary merit-rated handicap.”

By Michael Clower