Anyone know what these jocks are up to?

Thackeray
Balloo
Shadley Fortune
Burke
Pheiffer
May
Thabana
Van der Hoven
Smitsdorff

hey Durbs
One morning a week ago i saw the jock named Van de Hoven in a race in Aus.
I did have a nostalgic bet on both his ridez........nowhere near his famous million dollar win here.
Denicious Smith also carded in a venue there.

pls add Bret Smith.G Wroggeman to your list.
there was a phases when B Smith made cameo appearance on TT sat show,where he divulged welfare of his stables horses(ST).

Thanks Doyen.
I think Brett Smith is retired now and Gunter Wroggeman got injured and not sure he will be able to ride again.
Louie Goosen will know more about how Gunter is doing these days.

Dennis Schwarz and Raymond Danielson were two of my top jockeys a season or two ago but nowadays they struggle to get good quality rides up North. Stingray was even on another platform a few months ago being interviewed on his future plans and it was looking promising. After his recent injury in KZN he has struggled, other regional jocks are coming up North and getting the top JJ v Vuuren rides lately. I sincerely hope things change for these talented riders, we don't want them to become forgotten names.

To add to the list whatever happened to Fanie Chambers? I had many roughies arrive with him on top. Where's Fish Sturgeon, he was doing well with Muis Roberts at one stage. Stuart Randolph I'm presuming has retired?

What happened to Randal Simons?

He was a top jockey for de Kock.

Sturgeon took medical retirement I think...Chambers always had weight issues....and Simons has ongoing medical issues (back or joints I think)

Morning all

Just saw a MJ Thackery @ Swanhill


ex pat JLloyd has three appy offsprings,Jac?Jaden? but the daughterMadisson? is riding at the top of her game.


also saw at venus...B Lerena,K Latham,RFradd,SComack and the Schofield's.
I assume G Schofield is prob around 50? and i remember him always recieving top mounts locally.Now long odds are comon for him.Lets hope Chad can bring his HK form over.


last year a few times in HK fields in the form of horses,few KZN African jocks eg Ntuli were listed.

since SPage quit here,havent seen him train in Aus.

Not 100% sure but Cormack apparently got medically indisposed and got a bit of bucks from his insurance and then went to ride in Australia.
Another jock did the same but not sure who it was.
Cormack Drier team where deadly,that's when KZN trainers actually filled a few of the top 10 positions on the trainers log.
The last time a KZN trainer was in the top 10 was in 2016 when Duncan Howells finished 10th.

Stuart has a knee injury just had an op will be back in action soon hopefully

Some jockeys that become overweight, I see are work/exercise riders in Overseas, especially in the Middle East. Although not overweight Jarred Samuel is a work rider in Hong Kong currently.

T Appie is riding in Macau.

Although he rode in South Africa couple months back, Jose Barnes was in the USA.

I think Gavin Coetzee is in USA at the moment. I think he might even rode in Malaysia as well.

Zechner is in Australia.

I dont know if he is still riding, M Wepner was in Macau. I think he even rode in the Caribbean islands.

Plenty others are plying their trade overseas as mentioned in previous posts.

English Classic winning jockey, Sean Levey, was born in Eswatini (Swaziland) and moved to the UK/Ireland when he was a teenager.

On another note, Dylan Cunha, who posted here a few weeks back that he is taking out his trainers licence in the UK.

As per my above post I did state Jose Barnes was in the USA. Here is his story.

Courtesy Gold Circle

JOSE BARNES - "NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS"

by David Thiselton

Former lightweight Durbanite rider Jose Barnes has ridden a winner in his first meeting back in the USA.

Barnes produced the Brent Toups-trained Bet Again with a strong late run down the inside in the six-an-a-half furlong event on Wednesday at Delta Downs, a track in Louisiana which is a mixture of sand and clay with a limestone base.

History had thus repeated itself because Barnes, who was officially the shortest rider in SA when plying his trade here, had a winner in his first ever meeting in the USA back in May 2016 when bringing home the Steven Miyad-trained Two Steps Of Glory at the Golden Gate dirt racecourse in San Fransisco. Two Steps Of Glory was fittingly owned by ex-patriot South African film producer Gary Barber.

Barnes has never given up on his dreams and having defied the odds to be back in the saddle on that occasion he has done so again.

Barnes’, who grew up close to the now defunct Clairwood racecourse, approached jockey great and current KZN's champion trainer Garth Puller at the races one day more than ten years ago and told him he wanted to be a jockey.

Puller invited him to come to his Clairwood yard the following day and it was an opportunity the youngster snapped up.

The legendary Tutuzela, a Puller-trained one-time winning giant by Albarahin, was the kindest of old horses who did lap after lap of the Clairwood training tracks nurturing nervous young apprentices and he provided the perfect starting ride for Barnes.

Puller not only taught Barnes the riding ropes but took him to the races and taught him how to saddle horses and also gave him a gymn program to build his strength.

After a year he recommended him to the South African Jockey’s Academy.

It took Jose 57 rides to break his duck but he then grew in confidence and in the 2013/2014 season was one of the most sort after claiming apprentices in the country, including having a strong association with yard of once SA Champion trainer Charles Laird. Barnes proved many detractors wrong in the process.

However, he was then struck down by a debilitating back injury, which saw him side-lined for months. After an operation he made a brief comeback, but was written off by all and sundry after being forced back on to the side-lines.

His mother Monica Barnes then spent her life savings on an operation performed in the UK by renowned spinal surgeon Martin Knight and Jose was able to return to the saddle.

That USA meeting back in May 2016 was in fact his comeback after a year's layoff, so it was a fine feat to ride a winner.

His SA record upon arrival in the USA that year had read 27 winners and 141 places in 449 rides.

In July 2016 he departed for Washington, a west coast state which borders Canada, and he ended his first season in the USA with two winners in 33 rides.

In 2017, based largely in Washington but also having a stint in the east at Timonium racecourse and Delaware Park, he rode 14 winners at a strike rate of 11%.

He explained the reason for his return to SA in mid-November that year, "My visa was expiring and also it started getting cold and with my back history it was hard riding in the snow at Laurel Park. I returned to SA to do more rehabilitation and was advised by my doctors to take the whole of 2018 off. I then made a comeback in South Africa in 2019, but rode just one winner and still did not feel comfortable. So I took the rest of the year off, while doing rehab."

He continued, "In 2020 I got married to my wife Bry-Lynne Barnes, who was pregnant with my daughter at the time, on the 3rd of March. I was then supposed to leave to ride in the USA but the world was hit by COVID 19.

The racing in the USA in my personal opinion suits my riding style and the weights are good for me being a very light rider at 49kg because top weight is only about 55kg so I have not much dead-weight in the saddle for maiden races. I like the way they time and work horses in the mornings and for some reason I prefer the dirt to the turf. The purses are good and we race and work horses at the racetrack and have four days in a row of racing every week.

"I am freelancing now with my agent Kirk le Blanc, a retired jockey with over 3500 wins to his name. He has been in Louisiana his whole life and everyone knows him so he has been helping me a lot getting around the barns and getting to know trainers .I also chose this state (near the Gulf Of Mexico) because the winters are very mild."

"I have got a long term visa and am going to make the USA my home and my wife and baby will soon come over. I want to say a special thanks to my Mom Monica Barnes for always being there for me and to my wife and to my uncle Faisel Nagel who sponsored my rehabilitation and my trip to the USA."

He concluded, "Never give up on your dreams."

Picture: JOSE BARNES in the winner's enclosure on Wednesday at Delta Downs