Ryan Munger intends to continue with his have saddle-will travel approach to life – at least so far as his new job as first jockey to Glen Kotzen permits – when he moves to Cape Town at the end of the month.

“I will still do PE on Friday, Zim on Sunday when I get the chance, and Kimberley on Mondays,” he says. “I always have a full card there, riding for Stephanie Miller.”

Ryan Munger

Flamingo Park might as well be Outer Mongolia so far as most Cape Town jockeys are concerned. They have heard about the long bus trip to and from Johannesburg and quietly shuddered. “I now fly there and there is a flight from Cape Town to Kimberley so there shouldn’t be a problem,” says Munger, making light of the logistics. The fact that it leaves at 6.15am, necessitating arriving at the airport shortly after 5.00am, is greeted with a smiling “No problem – that won’t worry me. Anyway I would rather ride every day. I love what I do and, if I were to sit around, I’d get bored.

Surprisingly, he had never ridden at Kenilworth until May 26 this year. “It was the big day at Scottsville and I got offered rides by Mrs Bass-Robinson so I came for the day. She has supported me since.”

The association with Kotzen came two months later. “I rode Lanza for him, the horse won and a week later he said I must call him. It (the job offer) happened just like that.”

Now Munger is searching for somewhere to live – “I want to be in or around everything – I don’t want to be too far out – so I will probably stay in somewhere like Blouberg.”

Munger, 23 on Saturday week, is a nephew of Stuart Randolph and reckons to have ridden between 400 and 500 winners “including 60 in Zim.” Few people have been busier. He had over 1 200 rides in the season he finished his apprenticeship and more than 1 300 in the two subsequent seasons.

He rides at 52kg quite comfortably and without any form of diet. “Jeez, if I tell you what I eat people wouldn’t believe me.” So what does he eat? He grins: “Anything – and that includes takeaways.”

His biggest win so far was last year’s Caradoc Gold Cup on Ilitshe but he is confident his new association with Kotzen will bring him several at the highest level. But he wants even more. “The ambition is to win the July, naturally, and by next season to put myself into contention for the championship, or the top three at the very least.”

By Michael Clower