Title-chasing Gavin Lerena was demoted to third position on the national jockeys’ standings recently and replaced in second spot by Richard Fourie. The latter’s purple patch has seen his number of winners swell to 164 (at the time of writing) which is five more than Lerena (159) and just four fewer than pace-setting Craig Zackey (168).
Lerena, the Highveld’s leading jockey – his 110 winners in Gauteng this season is 49 better clear of the next best, Muzi Yeni (61) – should take a sizeable chunk out of the aforementioned deficits at the eight-race Inside track fixture at Turffontein on Thursday 27 March, as their three-way fight for national championship honours intensifies ahead of Champions Day on 29 March and the upcoming KwaZulu-Natal winter feature-race season thereafter.
TAB Pick 3 players are encouraged to cash in on Lerena’s rides early on the programme, beginning with Roy Magner-trained Vamanos in Race 1, a Maiden Juvenile Plate for fillies over 1000m.
This two-year-old filly was the subject of market support on debut over the same distance on Vaal’s Classic track three weeks ago. She raced prominently throughout and stayed on gamely under pressure before tiring late to finish fourth, less than four lengths off the winner.
Lerena, who rode the daughter of Gimmethegreenlight on that occasion, retains the partnership aboard Vamanos who would have come on appreciably since that outing and will improve with that experience under the belt.
What A Winter colt Constellation fits a similar profile and the Mike and Mathew de Kock-trained youngster needn’t improve much on his encouraging introduction to win Race 2 over 1000m.
Constellation was deemed good enough by the De Kock outfit to debut in the Listed Storm Bird Stakes on Classic Day and their charge, who attracted spirited betting support, justified that belief by finishing a close-up fourth over the same distance, belying his obvious inexperience.
Two runners from that race have stepped out since and both franked the form by winning subsequently. So, taking that into account, any improvement from Run 1 to Run 2 will see Constellation shed his maiden tag and land Lerena back in the winners’ enclosure
Lerena’s third and final mount on the card is lightly raced David Nieuwenhuizen-trained Mattiazo in Race 3, a Maiden Plate for fillies and mares over 1600m. He steered the daughter Silvano into fourth place on debut over 1500m and gets back aboard the four-year-old filly who remains open to improvement, especially with a tongue-tie fitted for the first time.
Elsewhere on the card, Joe Soma’s two runners on the card line up in Race 6 over 1800m and both have winning credentials. As such, Swinger and boxed Exacta bets with consistent Avoontoast and progressive three-year-old stablemate Serrano seem a likely route to handsome profits.
Clive Robinson
