Pat Eddery, champion Flat jockey 11 times and the winner of 14 British Classics, has died at the age of 63. Eddery was one of the most successful riders of all time and partnered more than 4 600 winners. He also won four Arcs and was aboard Dancing Brave for his breath-taking triumph in 1986.

His CV is punctuated with many of the world’s other great races including a brace of Gold Cups, two King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and he was also champion jockey in Ireland in 1982, 27 years after his father Jimmy had won the title for the second time.

As well as Dancing Brave, he was associated with some of the best racehorses of the late 20th century, among them Bosra Sham, Sadler’s Wells, Rainbow Quest, El Gran Senor, Grundy, Zafonic, Warning and Pebbles, whom Eddery won the Breeders’ Cup Turf on in 1985. Only Sir Gordon Richards has ridden more winners than him in Britain.

Eddery retired in 2003 and began training, sending out his first runner in 2005. It would have been almost impossible for him to match his achievements in the saddle, but he did enjoy a Group 1 victory when Hearts Of Fire won Italy’s Gran Criterium in 2009.

Eddery and Michael Roberts became very good friends over the years. “We travelled together a lot – to Japan, Breeders’ Cup, all over so I got to know him well,” he said yesterday. “He became a very good friend. His passing is so sad.

“He was tough jockey and a great horseman. He had one of the best pair of hands ever. He also had a unique style and to watch him ride was like watching poetry in motion.”

Robert Edmondson, Eddery’s close friend and former weighing room colleague, said on Tuesday morning: “He was one of the greats – without doubt.

“He was a wonderful rider and loved horses. He was a natural and wanted to win more than anything.”

Steve Drowne, Joint President of the Professional Jockey’s Association, said: “Pat was a truly great jockey in every way. He was the man we all aspired to be in the saddle. Everyone looked up to him in the weighing room. Just a great person to be around. A Professional’s Professional.”

By Andrew Harrison 

Jockeys John Egan, Eddie Ahern, Frankie Dettori and Franny Norton lift Eddery after his final race (aboard Gamut in the CIU Selby Stakes Race run at Doncaster on November 8, 2003).

Photograph: Andy Watts/Racingphotos/Rex Shutterstock

Visit http://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2015/nov/10/pat-eddery-a-life-in-pictures for the full slide show.

It’s the match of the day. Chevauchee and Bela-Bela, the two best Cape Fillies Guineas candidates not to run in last Saturday’s Choice Carriers Championship, take each other on in the Place Your Bets Handicap at Kenilworth today.

Both have won their only starts, despite dawdling out of the pens, and both earned rave reviews for the talented way they disposed of the opposition.

There is no form line but the handicappers have assessed Chevauchee as about a length the better and have weighted the pair accordingly. The bookmakers have also stuck their necks out with Betting World opening Chevauchee favourite at 8-10 yesterday and offering 15-10 about Bela-Bela. World Sports Betting favours Chevauchee even more, quoting her at 6-10 and her rival at 2-1. Speedball, considered by both firms to be the biggest danger, is as big as 8-1.

The evidence of the form book is far from conclusive. The three who finished immediately behind Bela-Bela were fourth, first and second on their next start. Chevauchee (pronounced Chev-O-Shay according to Ridgemont manager Craig Carey) ran more recently and the only placed horse in her race to have run since is the second, Honest Ally,  who started favourite last Saturday and finished third.

The one person really in a position to judge their relative merits is Bernard Fayd’Herbe who won on both and this time is claimed by Ridgemont for Chevauchee. “They are two very good fillies but they are very different,” he says. “One is very athletic and the other is a big strong sort.”

In other words it is just as difficult for him to choose between them. So what do the trainers think?

“Bela-Bela is a very nice filly and she is doing well,” says Justin Snaith. “I didn’t want to run her from a bad draw in the Choice Carriers. She again has a bad draw here so we will give her a chance in the race.”

But the field has since been reduced to six and Chevauchee’s draw advantage much diminished.  Joey Ramsden says: “The Choice Carriers would have been a bit soon for Chevauchee and she would have been drawn wide. Also she might not have got a run. Going round the turn will suit her and this time we’ve got the draw.”

It’s Chevauchee who gets the writer’s vote but it’s not much more than a coin-tossing decision. It promises to be a fascinating contest and the winner could well prove a worthy opponent for Silver Mountain.

Half Moon Hotel ran way above his rating when fourth to Blarney Bay and Captain America in the Hollard Humdinger Pinnacle at the end of last month and on that performance he is absolutely thrown in with only 53kg in the Itsarush.co.za Handicap (race six).

But at the age of six he hasn’t suddenly made miraculous improvement – “It was a big surprise,” says Vaughan Marshall. “But they went a decent pace and what he likes is a good, hard gallop.”

Anthony Andrews’ mount has to be the selection – particularly as you can get 8-1 about him.  In The Cruise (4-1) and Sheer Trouble (22-10) look the dangers.

Dean Kannemeyer’s Cape Laddie opened 18-10 favourite for the first but Angkor Wat looks better at 2-1 despite not having raced since Durbanville in July, while evens favourite Duke The Duke should recoup last time’s losses in race three.

By Michael Clower 

Picture: Bernard Fayd’Herbe (Nkosi Hlophe)

Red Ray, officially the best three-year-old in the country when he bowed out 18 months ago, may yet return to South Africa after his so far abortive overseas campaign.

Racing manager Derek Brugman said: “At the moment he is still in England, and there are some soundness issues.”

Brugman stressed that it has not been decided whether he will race again and added: “We might bring him back to South Africa to stand at stud but that decision is still some way away.”

Red Ray was trained by Joey Ramsden to win the 2013 Cape Classic before going close in the Cape Guineas, Cape Flying Championship and Golden Horse Sprint. He joined Mike de Kock and went via Mauritius to Dubai and Britain but his only run has been in a Group 2 seven furlong race at Meydan in January when he started favourite but finished seventh.

By Michael Clower

Picture: Red Ray (Liesl King)

Dean Kannemeyer will wait until the day before the race before sending Vodacom Durban July winner Power King to Johannesburg for the Sansui Summer Cup on November 28

He said: “I have done this before from Durban and I will arrange the journey so that he arrives there in the afternoon that Friday.”

Kannemeyer was delighted with the five-year-old’s prep in the 1 200m Pinnacle at Greyville ten days ago and understandably so with the gelding running on strongly over a trip too short for him to finish a length and a half second to Flyfirstclass.

He said: “That was a very nice run and he won’t run again in the meantime – one gallop is all he now needs. Of course he has quite a bit of weight to carry but I am very happy with the horse.”

By Michael Clower

Picture: Power King (Nkosi Hlophe)

Given the heatwave gripping the country it will be a relief for racing at Turffontein tomorrow evening where temperatures will hopefully be a little kinder come sunset. The heat may be brutal but just how Brutal Force fares in the Pinnacle Stakes that heads the card will be interesting. The big purses of the Highveld have lured Western Cape-based trainers out of their stronghold and Joey Ramsden teams up with old ally Andrew Fortune in a Pinnacle Stakes sprint that heads the card.

Trip To Heaven (JC Photo)

Brutal Force’s merit rating may have suffered as a result of the hype that surrounded him early in his career and although has been pitted against the best around his successes may not quite have warranted his current rating.

However, given that this is a conditions event Brutal Force looks to be up against it and it’s difficult to look past top weight Trip To Heaven. Hardly a meeting passes on the Highveld or in KZN when Sean Tarry’s name does not appear in the results column and he looks to have picked another plum for the son of Trippi.

Lightly raced, Trip To Heaven has won four of his eight starts and the form of his last two have held up very well. He had the wood on recent Charity Mile winner Bouclette Top last time out and prior to that beat Bloodstock SA Ready To Run winner Lineker. He does have a fair weight to shoulder but is not giving much away to his rivals and given his rating he should prove too good for this line-up.

An interesting runner is the return of Forest Indigo. One of the stars of his sophomore year it all went wrong for Alec Laird’s runner and he goes to the gate for the first time since March this year.

There is no doubt that he will prefer further but with the Highveld season upon us, just how he fares will no doubt determine his future.

Mike de Kock appears to have unearthed another smart performer in Perfume Lady who does duty in the sixth, a handicap sprint over 1000m. The daughter of Captain Al landed the odds on debut and was then pitted against feature company on the Vaal sand. She was far from friendless in the market and duly obliged at just her second time at the track.

Her sand rating is significantly below her turf rating so she looks well in at these weights and along with Trip To Heaven should make a strong double.

By Andrew Harrison