Gavin Lerena has earned widespread admiration for winning the South African Jockeys Championships this past season chiefly due to the mental grit he showed in burying the albatross of the 2011/2012 season.

On Thursday evening last week, the day before Gavin was officially crowned Jockeys Champion, his cousin Kevin Lerena won the South African cruiserweight boxing belt after an impressively one-sided 12 round victory over the title holder Deon Coetzee, so there will likely be a big family celebration sometime this week.

In the 2011/2012 season Gavin saw a big lead being diminished to virtually nothing in the final month.

He was still one winner clear of Anton Marcus entering the final meeting at Kenilworth but rode a blank to the latter’s double.

He later sat in the jockey’s room shell-shocked and heartbroken.

He admitted, “Every morning after waking up or whatever I was doing in the day it was always in the back of my mind. I thought what could I have done differently, I had it in the bag and I just needed to follow through, but the cards didn’t fall that way. I didn’t have the support he had and it was very hard for me, it took me a long time to overcome it.”

Lerena also admitted that rather than making him mentally stronger the experience actually made him more fearful. This is a reality often seen in golfers after a major has slipped from their grasps – the task of keeping the choking demon at bay in subsequent majors becomes that much more difficult.

He continued, “It’s just great that we’ve got the win under our belt and everything from now on is a bonus.”

Lerena has a riding weight of 57kg and looked to have a tough task with two months of the season to go as he was going neck and neck with the then reigning champion S’Manga Khumalo, whose riding weight of 52,5kg allows him a wider range of opportunities. However, Lerena showed what he is made of in June when breaking a new South African record for the number of winners in a month, 42. His 154 rides that month were achieved at a strike rate of 27.27% and he had three four-timers, four trebles and five doubles. An indication of how taxing it is to chase a jockeys championship is that of those 42 June winners 12 were at Turffontein, nine were at Fairview, eight were at The Vaal, six were at Scottsville, four were at Flamingo Park and three were at Greyville.

The June milestone was the second South African record Lerena has set as he broke the legendary Michael “Muis” Roberts’ mark of 260 when riding 283 winners as an apprentice. He was a twice South African Champion Apprentice last decade.

Lerena said about his approach to this year’s title chase, “I set myself goals from the first day of the season and everything just went to plan. I couldn’t have asked for more, the support from the trainers and owners was really amazing.”

He added, “I had it won for about a week (before the end of the season) and everyone was saying how do you feel and it never really hit me, but last Thursday after the last race it hit me that I’ve done it and I thank God everything fell into place and went according to plan. I feel on top of the world.”

The title chase not only requires extreme levels of mental toughness but also a high level of physical fitness. However, Lerena revealed there was nothing like “racing fitness” and the only time he ever did extra exercise was during recovery periods when he did a lot of swimming.

Lerena has always been known as an outstanding horsemen. He was born into the racing game and was sitting on the back of horses before he could walk.

“I think my love for horses has a lot to do with my passion for the game. Without the horse we’re nothing.”

He said of the immediate future, “I want to take a couple of breaks over the next couple of months, a week here and a week there, but if within striking distance I’m definitely going to give the championships another shout.”

He has had a couple of job offers from overseas but has turned them down for now, “I’ve missed out a lot on my son’s growing up over the past couple of months and I just want to spend a lot of time with my family at this stage.”

Lerena spoke about his cousin Kevin, “He’s 23 years-old now and eight years ago he rode a winner at Clairwood – now he’s a heavyweight boxer! He’s a true sportsman and he’s very dedicated to his sport and I’m just so blessed that he’s back on top. He’s mentally and physically a very focused man and I’m very proud of him.”

The professionalism Gavin and Kevin have displayed this year appears to run in the family and another of the cousins Brandon is also a fine jockey in his own right.

Gavin revealed, “We’re very competitive and from a young age myself, Kevin, Brandon and my other cousins Steven, Evan and all of them, whether it was racing around the farm on horses or our bicycles, or cricket or soccer or rugby, we were very competitive and loved winning.”

Gavin has not ridden work for the last three months due to his travelling commitments and he concluded, “I love riding work and can’t wait to get back to the tracks and get to enjoy the horses in the mornings again.”

By David Thiselton

Picture: Champion Jockey Gavin Lerena