Strydom eyes record after winning fourth July
JOCKEY Piere Strydom put himself in line for making racing history next year when riding The Conglomerate to victory in Saturday’s R4.25m Vodacom Durban July.
If he manages to win this famous race in 2017, he will become the first jockey to partner five winners in the race. At present he is tied with Anton Marcus, Anthony Delpech and the legendary “Tiger” Wright.
It is a measure of Strydom’s expertise that he managed to overcome the worst draw in Saturday’s race but it is Derek Brugman — racing manager for owner Markus Jooste — who must take much of the credit for this big race success.
Four weeks ago, Brugman contacted Strydom requesting him to partner one of the Jooste runners in the race — whatever was left after retained jockey, Anton Marcus, had made his choice. He opted for stablemate St Tropez who ran unplaced. When the draw was made, Strydom probably wished he had stayed with Mac De Lago who had won the Rising Sun Gold Challenge.
As it turned out, Mac De Lago ran a superb race in third and rewarded Business Day followers with a place payout of R4.20.
The Conglomerate, an Aussie import who cost $119,964 as a yearling, had failed to build on a successful three-yearold career and — despite the booking of Strydom — most pundits believed trainer Joey Ramsden’s four-year-old would find the likes of French Navy and Bela-Bela too smart.
However, The Conglomerate raised his game on Saturday holding off the challenge of Mike Bass’ highly rated three-year-old, Marinaresco. Interestingly, the son of Silvano was drawn next to the winner in the starting gate thus proving wide draws can be overcome in this 2,200m contest.
The Bass stable made no secret of how highly they rated their R1.3m buy and the gelding nearly gave Bass a sensational parting gift. He is due to hand over the reins of his stable to his daughter, Candice, at the end of this month.
Although Bernard Fayd’Herbe was also drawn wide on Mac De Lago, the Cape-based jockey, best known for his association with the mighty Pocket Power, soon had his mount in a handy position and Weiho Marwing’s Aussie import finished well to collect the R400,000 third cheque.
He was followed home by Investec Cape Derby winner, It’s My Turn.
Marwing will be happy with the performance of Mac De Lago, however, will probably feel that the penalty the four-year-old received for winning the Rising Sun Gold Challenge affected his winning prospects.
There was a late betting plunge on Triple Crown hero, Abashiri, and also good late support for Solid Speed. Neither horse could mount a challenge in the straight although Abashiri faced a daunting task with his weight of 59kg.
Bela-Bela, the fancy of many tipsters, finished a disappointing sixth and there was also no joy for backers of French Navy who had looked to have bright prospects of giving owner Chris van Niekerk his third July success.
Thirteen-times Hong Kong champion, Dougie Whyte, was given a warm reception by the Greyville crowd and his mount, Black Arthur, was another runner that failed to come up to expectations.
However, Black Arthur’s trainer, Justin Snaith, had some compensation in the grade 2 Golden Horseshoe where another Australian import, Zodiac Ruler, found the best finish to get the better of Mike de Kock’s useful juvenile, Misty Birnam.
Earlier in the meeting, De Kock had made a clean sweep of the fourth race — the SABC Gold Vase — with his four runners filling the first four places. S’manga Khumalo was the winning jockey in this 3,000m marathon scoring on four-year-old, Enaad.