Murray heads off to Far East
SA jockey log-leader Gavin Lerena is also going abroad. He’ll be basing himself in England in the near future.
Callan Murray took the advice of trainer Mike de Kock before deciding to ride in Hong Kong until their season ends in mid-July.
The decision to go abroad for the second time this year happened very suddenly for 20-yearold Murray, who was asked if he wanted to go only last Wednesday.
He was given a number to call in Hong Kong and applied to go.
“By Thursday it was all organised,” said Murray, who will have his first ride in the former British colony this Sunday.
However, Murray has been riding with lots of success for the De Kock yard and was not going to sacrifice that lucrative opportunity just to ride abroad.
“I let Mr de Kock make the decision. I don’t think I would have gone without his blessing but he agreed, and luckily I now have the best of both worlds.”
“Fortunately many of his horses have gone for a rest so he does not have that many in Durban for the season.
“However, we did agree I would come back to ride Heavenly Blue in the Daily News 2000 in June and in the Vodacom Durban July.”
Last season’s Equus Champion Apprentice had to get the Hong Kong Jockey Club to agree that he could come back for those meetings, which they were happy to do.
Last December the jockey, who was born on 24 August 1996 and has won 225 races in South Africa, also spent a month in Australia, riding four winners there, and on Champions Day had a meeting any jockey could only dream about when he rode three Grade 1 winners.
“It’s all come so quickly for me but I’m just trying to keep focused. It’s all very exciting and all part of a learning curve,” said the minimum-weight 52kg rider.
In other news from the jockeys’ ranks, 2015 champion and current title race leader Gavin Lerena is to relocate to the UK this summer when he will be based with Charlie Hills at Faringdon Place Stables in Lambourn.
Lerena boasts 48 major-race successes in his homeland and hopes to add to that portfolio.
The 31-year-old is to be sponsored by Chelsea Thoroughbreds, whose principals Richard Morecombe and James Ramsden have been impressed with his riding on the South African circuit and will give him opportunities on their 27 horses when appropriate and possible. Their horses are housed with a total of nine trainers spread around the country.
Hills expects to give Lerena plenty of opportunities, while many other trainers have expressed an interest in his services.
Not since former Racing Post editor Graham Rock brought Michael Roberts over in 1991 has a leading South African jockey based himself permanently in the UK and Lerena is greatly looking forward to the challenge.
He said: “I’m so excited to get over to the UK and start riding winners there. I thank Richard and James at Chelsea Thoroughbreds as well as Charlie himself for offering me this wonderful opportunity.”
Meanwhile Chelsea Thoroughbreds are delighted to add Lerena’s skills to its rapidly growing place amongst the top syndicate operations in the country.
“I was really impressed with the winners Gavin rode at Ascot last summer and there’s a real opportunity for him here in the UK at the moment,” said Richard Morecombe.
James Ramsden added: “My brother Joey, who trains in Cape Town, couldn’t recommend Gavin to us strongly enough while I saw that talent for myself when he rode at the Shergar Cup last summer.”
Lerena was a three-time champion apprentice riding out of Johannesburg, amassing 283 winners and breaking a record Roberts had held for three decades.
Amongst his recent major successes was victory in the 2015 and 2016 SANSUI Summer Cups on the Geoff Woodruff-trained Master Sabina.
When landing the SA title he achieved a record of 42 successes in a single month and has partnered around 1,400 career winners.
His experience out of South Africa involves a victory in the 2015 Hong Kong International Jockeys’ Challenge at Happy Valley and those two successes on his only visit to the UK when riding at last year’s Shergar Cup at
Ascot.