Ride Of The Month: Craig Zackey

You know we’re getting right into the heart of winter when there were only five meetings that took place in the month of June at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth. One was abandoned due to the heavy rain which is so common for this time of year. But, the racing was good and there was some excellent jockeyship on display.

To show how competitive the jockeys’ ranks are, can be seen by the fact that 14 different jockeys found their way into the winner’s enclosure, with Richard Fourie (12) topping the list.

He continues to march on in what has been a record-breaking season. Both Craig Zackey and Grant van Niekerk (6 each) were the next most prolific with Corne Orffer and JP van der Merwe (4 each) also enjoying good months.

It won’t surprise you to hear that when I studied all the races, I had difficulty in narrowing my selections down to three rides. But, they came from the form jockeys of the month, so that also tells a story.

I thought that Richard (Fourie) rode a brilliant race when winning the sixth on She’s My Captain on 2nd June. She’s a five-year-old mare that he knows well and was winning for the fifth time on her. Although it was a small field of eight, he came from the back and got her up close home to beat Robert Khati on Palo Queen.

Then, on the 11th June Grant (van Niekerk) was impressive when partnering Katsu to win the seventh race over 1400m. Some felt that Katsu might be better suited to the longer straight of the new course, but he rode a peach. He came from well off the pace from his No12 draw and got up on the line to beat Chollima. Guess who was on the runner-up? Robert (Khati), again!