Golden boy Khumalo brings it home at July
Black jockey wins SA’S biggest race for the first time on Nelson Mandela day at Greyville
SOUTH Africa’s new golden boy, Smanga Khumalo, became the first black jockey to clinch the R3.5-million Vodacom Durban July yesterday.
Nicknamed “Bling”, Khumalo galloped to victory on Heavy Metal, which did not feature among the favourites.
Yesterday’s win takes to three the number of premier races that Khumalo, a graduate of the South African Jockey Academy, now has under his belt.
Amid cheers from the 55 000-strong crowd, Khumalo paraded Heavy Metal and threw his hands in the air, gesturing for more applause.
Owner Chris van Niekerk planted a kiss on Khumalo’s forehead before the jockey threw his goggles into the crowd.
Sporting a blond hairdo, Khumalo thanked his team of trainers, his mother and wife.
“Yoh! I am just so happy. And I’m really grateful for all the support,” he said.
ON a day when Greyville racecourse paid tribute to the country’s ailing icon, Nelson Mandela, with badges showing his image handed out to all racegoers on arrival, the country’s premier racing event, the Vodacom Durban July, was won for the first time by a black jockey.
Smanga Khumalo, 29, with a peroxided hairstyle concealed by his helmet, produced one of the four Sean Tarry runners, the four-year-old Heavy Metal, at just the right moment to snatch the spoils from the well supported Run For It.
The victory was the second in succession for owner Chris van Niekerk and trainer Sean Tarry, who won the race with Pomodoro last year.
It also gave Khumalo the distinction of having won three of the country’s major Grade 1 events during the past eight months.
He was successful on Wagner in the Summer Cup in November and piloted Heavy Metal to victory in the President’s Champion’s Challenge in April. He also won the Grade 1 Zulu Kingdom Explorer Golden Slipper, aboard For The Lads, for Tarry and Van Niekerk, earlier in the day, while the trio also scored in the Grade 2 Mercedes-Benz Gold Vase with Kolkata.
The slow pace in the July counted against Pomodoro and some of the other stayers, with tight bunching around the sweeping turn asWagner cut out a sedate pace up front. Run For It and his stable companion, the well-backed Jet Explorer, were set to pounce turning into the home straight, but Khumalo, who had ridden a patient race, was beginning a move from the back on Heavy Metal.
Together with Robbie Fradd, on the diminutive Geoff Woodruff-trained filly, Day To Remember, who ran the
Mr Tarry never put any pressure on me before the race and I was very relaxed going into the starting pens. That’s the way I like to be at all times
race of her life, Khumalo began to close the gap on the leaders. The game Heavy Metal snared Run For It in the dying strides, with Day To Remember grabbing third place, less than a half a length adrift.
No Worries did best of the somewhat disappointing male three-yearolds to finish fourth. Jet Explorer was fifth, just ahead of Whiteline Fever and Capetown Noir.
“Mr Tarry never put any pressure on me before the race and I was very relaxed going into the starting pens. That’s the way I like to be at all times”, said Khumalo after the race.
The talented jockey rode the medium-sized but athletic Heavy Metal to perfection and confirmed his stature as one of SA’s top jockeys.
Coincidentally, this correspondent was asked to film Heavy Metal’s preparatory gallop at the Randjesfontein training centre, on Thursday last week, and Khumalo was positively beaming when he dismounted. However, Heavy Metal’s close proximity to his stable companion and last year’s winner, Pomodoro, in the weights was enough to put many people off backing him.
Heavy Metal, out of the Baroon mare, Percussion, gave Klerksdorp breeders Lyth and Neil Orford their first July victory. Van Niekerk paid tribute to their astuteness as breeders after the race.
The horse’s remarkable sire, Silvano, also wrapped up this year’s Sires Championship and will set a new stakes earning record at the end of the present season.