Ride Of The Month: Richard Fourie

The 10th in our popular series of the most eye-catching ride by a Cape-based jockey each month. We ask former World Sports Betting Cape Met-winning rider and renowned jockey MJ Byleveld, now a member of Cape Racing’s on-course commentary team, for his verdict.

Ride Of The Month (March): Richard Fourie – Okavango

Racing returned to Hollywoodbets Durbanville in March and history has shown us that the track always runs fast at this time of year and that the front-runners are tough to catch. This was proved in the very first race, on the 5th, when Amen Corner showed speed and won at 7-1 on her debut. 

The meeting produced four winners for champion jockey Richard Fourie. And, in doing so, he bucked the trend of front-running winners.

He had success aboard Hoerikwaggo, Strawberry Thief, Street Outlaw and Okavango and both Strawberry Thief and Okavango came from well back, In fact, Okavango, the 28-10 favourite, never looked like winning anywhere except on the line.

What shone through was Fourie’s patience, judgement and fitness. It looked like he was becoming detached from the field over this 1600m event, but for him to bring the three-year-old through and get him up to beat Touchdown on the line was something to behold. We were unlikely to see a better ride in the month, and in my opinion there wasn’t a better one.

Notable mentions however must include Louis Mxothwa on the Brett & James Crawford-trained Chasingtherainbow over 1400m on the 8th. The three-year-old is quite laid back and is looking for further and for large parts was going nowhere in a hurry. Louis did well to get him up, it was a good ride.

We went back to Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on the 16th and there were some eye-catching rides. One came from Corne Orffer on Gem King, a 66-1 outsider in a seven-horse field, who collared Andrew Fortune late in this 1100m sprint. 

Another was the ride by Muzi Yeni on Gallic Dream in the eighth race on the same day. He was backed into 15-10 and Muzi was under pressure for a long way. He was being challenged on both sides after having his mount prominent, but kept balanced and brought Gallic Dream home.

Special mention must go to Craig Zackey, who won the Cape Racing Sales Cape Slipper on Military Command. This colt won from start to finish over the Hollywoodbets Kenilworth 1200m which is not common for a two-year-old. It’s a tough task winning like that and it was brave by Craig to adopt those tactics.

MJ’s past rides of the month:

June: Oswald Noach – Little Miss Pink

July: Craig Zackey – Green Isle

August: Corne Orffer – Master Redoute

September: Oswald Noach – Princess Of Bayeux

October: Richard Fourie – King Viserys

November: Gavin Lerena – World Of Pleasure

December: Chad Little – Azzurri

January: Gavin Lerena – Rascova

February: JP van der Merwe – Callmegetrix