S’Manga Khumalo has been booked by Joey Ramsden to ride in seven of the eight races when Cape Town racing resumes after its two-week post Sun Met break at Kenilworth on Saturday.

The dual champion, still looking for his first Kenilworth winner of the season (he has had three seconds and two thirds from just 34 rides), gets the call partly because Donovan Dillon is still sidelined as the result of the injuries he received on Met day.

Double Alliance was difficult to load for the Tattersalls Summer Juvenile and reared with him in the pens causing the damage. Dillon finished fifth on the colt and rode in the next before being forced to call it a day. The failure to inform Hong Kong of the subsequent jockey changes caused that well-documented international furore.

Dillon said yesterday: “I tried to carry on with my other rides that day. The adrenaline was still flowing for a time but as soon as I had a bit of break the pain became unbearable. I proved to have damaged ligaments in my knee. I also have a damaged cartilage and bruising on the knee bone. I expect to be out for about six weeks.”

Anton Marcus will also be in action at Kenilworth on Saturday. The four-time champion has six rides – two for Candice Bass-Robinson, three for Brett Crawford and Mythical Bolt (a beaten favourite last time) for Sean Tarry.

Marcus, now leading the championship chase and 15-10 favourite for the title with World Sports Betting, has an impressive  strike rated of 26% at Kenilworth this season but this figure is significantly less than his near 32% national strike rate. Muzi Yeni, at the moment his only serious pursuer, went into yesterday’s Flamingo Park meeting four winners adrift on 111. That came from 921 rides compared with Marcus’s 362. Yeni is 28-10 second favourite.

Ryan Munger (792 rides) is a 14-1 chance and started yesterday in third place on 89 winners, with Greg Cheyne fourth on 82. But it’s the current champion Lyle Hewitson who is regarded as the biggest threat to the top two. He missed the early part of the season but is fast making up for lost time and has now ridden 92 winners. He is a 7-2 chance.

Gavin Lerena, 80 winners this term and champion in 2014/15, comes next on 4-1. Richard Fourie is twice that price despite also having ridden 80. Cheyne is a 33-1 shot – presumably because he has repeatedly said in the past that he is not going to go for the championship come what may!

By Michael Clower