MICK KINANE ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT

Mick Kinane and Sea The Stars at Juddmonte International
(Photo : Getty Images)

WE WILL “SEA” YOU LATER

Thoroughbred Daily News reports:

Mick Kinane has called time on his career following a season to remember partnering Sea the Stars (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}). In a statement to the Press Association, the 50-year-old revealed the decision. “I have decided this is the right time to retire from race-riding. At 50 I still feel fit and sharp enough to do any horse justice but, after the season I have just had in partnership with Sea the Stars, I have the privilege of being able to end my career as a jockey on an incredible high and that’s what I want to do. I leave with a huge sense of gratitude to all the great horses I have ridden, all the great trainers whose genius developed those champions and everybody else in racing, from the stable lads to the owners, who have made me deeply thankful for my involvement in the game. Teamwork is the key to success in racing and I have been blessed with some of the best alliances a jockey could have. The most important support of all throughout my career has, naturally, come from my wife, Catherine, along with my family and friends. Both Catherine and our two precious daughters, Sinead and Aisling, know how much they mean to me.” Kinane retires as the winner of four renewals of the 2000 Guineas, three Derbys, two Oaks, a St Leger, five King Georges and six St James’s Palace Stakes. and a total of 14 Irish Classics and seven Irish Champion Stakes. He also garnered three editions of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, a Melbourne Cup, a Belmont Stakes and three Breeders’ Cup wins.

We were lucky enough to see Mick Kinane in action here in South Africa at Turffontein at the International Jockey’s challenge last month. He is a legendary rider & consummate professional & we wish him all the best in his retirement.

INTERNATIONAL JOCKEYS CHALLENGE 2009

Team South Africa Captain, Anton Marcus
(Photo : Reuters/Shine2010)

“ARE JOCKEYS SOUTH AFRICA’S BEST SPORTSMEN?”

Mike MoonIn this morning’s The Times, Mike Moon poses the question, “Are jockeys South Africa’s best sportsmen?”

What is South Africa’s best sporting code? Don’t laugh, but a good case can be made for horse riding. The country’s jockeys, as a group, are arguably the best in the world.

The Springboks might win the occasional tournament, but their dominance is always fleeting and vulnerable to admin white-anting. Graeme Smith talks a good game, but does anyone believe the Proteas can mentally shackle that jailbird spawn from Down Under? Not really. Our pro golfers have a good claim to being South Africa’s most accomplished sportsmen - relatively, numbers-wise etc.

But the little guys are also pretty big, so to speak. Wherever South African-trained jockeys go, they succeed.

The great Muis Roberts was champion of Britain, Basil Marcus topped the log seven times in racing-mad Hong Kong, and countryman Dougie Whyte is now on his way to a 10th straight Hong Kong championship. Felix Coetzee, Barend Vorster, Weichong Marwing, Kevin Shea and Greg Cheyne are other South African riders who’ve ridden ‘em to sleep overseas.

This remarkable record makes tomorrow’s International Jockeys Challenge at Turffontein a compelling contest. The challenge covers four races on the 10-race card, with points accumulating, and mounts allocated via a seeded draw to even things up.

The showdown between the six-man South African team and a star-studded European squad offers locally based jockeys a great chance to test their talents. And they have a good chance of repeating last year’s victory over the internationals.

Not a few racing pundits reckon that SA captain Anton Marcus is the best jockey in the world at the moment. That’s a big statement, but if you’ve seen the manner in which he has booted home winner after winner in recent months, you give it credence.

Piere “Striker” Strydom is one of the world’s great judges of pace in a horse race and would be a globe-trotting star if he didn’t like it so much at home.

Also in the South African ranks are the aforementioned Felix Coetzee, and fellow ex-SA champ Anthony Delpech, with tons of experience between them. Young thrusters Richard Fourie and Gavin Lerena make up the team.

Reigning SA champion jockey Andrew Fortune is injured, but has been made team manager.

The Bok jocks won’t want for a motivational team-talk: Fortune, a recovering druggie, gives inspirational chats at rehab clinics. And boy, can he talk. At the Equus awards this year, he had hard-bitten racing luminaries tearful at his acceptance speech.

The European team is Irishmen Mick Kinane, Richard Hughes and Jimmy Fortune, England’s Seb Sanders, Turkey’s Halis Karatas, and Italy’s Frankie Dettori.

A bonus tomorrow is a fifth challenge race that matches the Euros against an “emerging” local team - Muzi Yeni, Brandon Lerena, Aldo Domeyer, Raymond Danielson and S’Manga Khumalo.

An intriguing day’s racing if the weather plays ball.

MICHAEL "MUIS" ROBERTS HONOURED

Michael “Muis” Roberts - South Africa Team Manager
(TAB/Summerhill Stud)

A long overdue honour has been bestowed upon arguably South Africa’s greatest former jockey, Michael “Muis” Roberts.

In Johannesburg last week, Michael Roberts was named manager of the South African team that will line up against the cream of the world’s top jockeys for Saturday’s International Jockeys’ Challenge at Turffontein. He was awarded his South African national colours along with the nation’s best jockey talent.

Michael Roberts,  the 11 time Champion jockey of South Africa and 1992 Champion jockey of Britain, is now a racehorse trainer in the Karkloof Kwa-Zulu Natal where he trains 65 horses for owners, including Fieldspring Racing and Sydney Cassell.

Michael Roberts has himself competed in a number of international jockey “Tests” staged in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. He has also managed international jockey teams in Royal Ascot’s Shergar Cup competition.

Frankie Dettori of Italy, captain of the international team is an old friend of Michael Roberts.

“When I was riding in the UK he was an apprentice, and too young to drive, so I often gave him a lift to the races,” recalls Michael Roberts. “He used to chow sweets in the back of the car with my daughters and practise his English on them.”

A neck injury resulting from a fall in the UK in 2001 led Michael Roberts to retire from riding at the age of 48. “I was still enjoying racing; if I hadn’t been injured I’d probably still be riding.” he said.

Summerhill wishes Michael Roberts and Team South Africa every success this weekend.

INTERNATIONAL JOCKEYS' CHALLENGE : The Leviathans of Racing

Christophe Soumillon
(Hong Kong Jockey Club)

Saturday’s Steinhoff Summer Cup meeting sees the re-inauguration of the Jockey’s International concept, this time in “Test Match” format as they take on the cream of South Africa’s best, and it’s likely to be as great an attraction as the main event at Turffontein. The four-race International Jockeys’ Challenge is led by South Africa’s champion jockey, Mark Khan, and an international team which includes the irrepressible Frankie Dettori.

Twelve of the world’s top jockeys will be in action, with the visiting contingent including France’s flamboyant Christophe Soumillon, cool Irishman Mick Kinane, Australian legend Damien Oliver, top English jockey Darryl Holland and Indian champion Mallesh Narredu.

The South African team comprises Piere Strydom, Kevin Shea, Mark Khan, Weichong Mawing, Karl Neisius, and Anton Marcus, with Anthony Delpech as the reserve. All have been awarded Proteas colours, as has team manager Michael Roberts.

STEINHOFF SUMMER CUP : Bigger and Better than ever

Jimmy Lithgow’s Summer Cup pick, Galant Gagnant
(Gold Circle/Summerhill Stud)

With the Gomma Gomma dropping out of the sponsorship race, the Summer Cup under the generous hand of Steinhoff’s Group CEO, Marcus Jooste, is back in its rightful place as South Africa’s third richest horserace, with an enhanced stake of R2,000,000.

Yet that’s not all this time-honoured event has to offer this weekend, as it comes with the additional attraction of the renewal of the Jockey’s International, pioneered in the old Transvaal more than 40 years ago, by the legendary likes of Sandy Christie and Wally Segal during their tenure as General Manager’s of Turffontein and Gosforth Park respectively. Who will ever forget the spectacle of those bigger-than-life clashes between the colossis Lester Piggott, Ron Turcotte (remember SECRETARIAT?), Willy Carson, Fernando Toro, and the older Gianfranco Dettori, father and mentor to racing’s greatest name of the modern era, Frankie Dettori?

Meanwhile the focus of today’s script is the race itself, and the fact that Summerhill has no fewer than four entries headed by the Group One performing GALANT GAGNANT; the rapidly improving THANDOLWAMI; JAY PEG’s Guineas nemesis, DYNAMITE MIKE and dyed-in-the-wool veteran, FORK LIGHTENING. According to Jimmy Lithgow, writing in this weekend’s Sunday Times, the horse they all have to beat is GALANT GAGNANT, an eye-catching fourth behind the top-notch Our Giant in a preparation race at Turffontein over 1400m earlier this month.

This four-year-old was a short-head second behind the Dubai-bound Russian Sage in the Daily News 2000 (Gr1) at Greyville, and if his subsequent disappointing runs in the Vodacom Durban July and the Champions Cup can be overlooked, he seems to be peaking at just the right time. Anthony Delpech has the ride while the stable’s first jockey, Kevin Shea, will be piloting Rudra.

Another big chance is Charles Laird’s Smart Banker, an impressive winner of the recent Grade 2 Victory Moon Stakes when he had Mike de Kock’s Rudra just over a length behind him.

Of the older horses, Prince Asad has the class and the stamina to win for Geoff Woodruff, whose stable has recaptured its form of old. Stable jockey Mark Khan will partner Geoff Woodruff’s obvious first choice, the younger Aluminium. The latter appears to be somewhat overrated by the handicappers though, and capitulated tamely when challenged by Smart Banker and Rudra in the Victory Moon Stakes.

Charles Laird’s third runner, Likeithot, was a gutsy winner of the Grade 2 November Handicap, but may battle to beat Thandolwami, a fast-finishing second on that occasion. KwaZulu-Natal trainer Craig Eudey will be going all out to achieve a ground- breaking success in the Summer Cup and Thandolwami, who has something to find with Galant Gagnant on their Daily News 2000 form, cannot be discounted.

If you’re looking for a long shot the out of form She’s On Fire is lengths better in soft going while Membrado, second in last season’s Canon Gold Cup at Greyville, is not short on stamina. The latter’s stable companion, FORK LIGHTENING, tends to rise to the occasion and rates a place.

JIMMY LITHGOW’S SELECTIONS

1 GALANT GAGNANT

2 PRINCE ASAD

3 THANDOLWAMI

4 SMART BANKER

Click here to download the final field for the
R2million Steinhoff Summer Cup
(Computaform/TAB)