Why Anton Marcus Is The Best Jock

Besides all of the above in my opinion he has a good balanced life..a very strong family man from what ive seen..

I do miss Striker Strydom. Hope we see him back in SA.

how dominant would anton marcus be if loyd schofield fradd marwing whyte vorster strydom were still riding in south africa?we have no young jockeys coming through the ranks as we did in days gone by and this is shown by who wins the jockeys title every year...i think the last jock to win the title under 30 was antony delpech...coetzee and neisius are on the wrong side of 50 and they are in our top 10 on the log..where are our ryan moores soumilons etc....WE HAVE NONE and thats why the older brigade over 40s dominate year in year out...a few years ago fortune won the title being restricted to ride at around 57min why dont the younger guys try and win the title ...does it mean nothing to yeni lerena danielson etc or are they not dedicated and hungry like the over 40 brigade...marcus would be competitive in most racing countries but he is riding against a distinct lack of quality compared to the great years of the past

I get your point Pirates but one of the best rides I have seen, against some of the riders you mention, was the 2007 Durban July www.formgrids.com/subscriber/fgRaceResul...,ZA&hs=HUNTING+TOWER . HT was a good horse but not top drawer and apparently was a difficult ride. I was 50 meters from the line and Anton Superman-ed this horse home. He out rode them on that day and I would not be surprised if he did it on a regular basis given the opportunity to.

On the young guys, I do not think its a quality of rider issue, there are other larger forces at work. You just have to look at the power stables of MDK, C Laird, Bass, Snaith etc. They are sent the better horses and the 40+ boys get the rides on these due to their seniority. In fact this is true to wherever they travel too in Fortunes case.

There seems to be no follow through support for the talented young rider. Gavin Lerena broke some or other apprentice record held by Michael Roberts a few years back and I remember him being interviewed and saying that his long term goal was to go overseas. He joined the Tarry yard for a short stint and there was some or other cloud over his head too I seem to recall (I don't think it was related). He is now pretty much on the fringe doing well with what he gets but hardly getting decent rides in feature races. Put this guy on the quality of horse that the senior boys are on and we will have a real competition for the jockey title on our hands.

I like Muzi Yeni and hope that he gets a half decent ride and wins the July! He did not shape to badly last year on the ride he had. Karis Teetan is good too. Smanga Khumalo picked up a ride for the Tarry stable (Happy Archer) the other day and for some reason Anton should have been on. I shouted this home thinking it was Anton and in fact the ride was good enough for Anton to have been proud of. Trainers and owners need to take some responsibility for not giving these guys opportunities.

also mark khan has been lost to our jockey ranks due to injury which was a major loss to our depleted pool...the best young rider to come out of this country in the last 10 years is richard fourie...he has chosen to ride in mauritius the last 2 seasons which is a major dissapointment because he has it all to go to the very top if his career is managed correctly...why not start with a crack at the national jockeys title ?the young riders of today lack ambition and are not prepared to put in the hard graft but rather stay in a comfort zone...they need to spend time with coetzee and neisius ...

pirates Wrote:

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> how dominant would anton marcus be if loyd
> schofield fradd marwing whyte vorster strydom were
> still riding in south africa?we have no young
> jockeys coming through the ranks as we did in days
> gone by and this is shown by who wins the jockeys
> title every year...i think the last jock to win
> the title under 30 was antony delpech...coetzee
> and neisius are on the wrong side of 50 and they
> are in our top 10 on the log..where are our ryan
> moores soumilons etc....WE HAVE NONE and thats why
> the older brigade over 40s dominate year in year
> out...a few years ago fortune won the title being
> restricted to ride at around 57min why dont the
> younger guys try and win the title ...does it mean
> nothing to yeni lerena danielson etc or are they
> not dedicated and hungry like the over 40
> brigade...marcus would be competitive in most
> racing countries but he is riding against a
> distinct lack of quality compared to the great
> years of the past

i agree with your post pirates, and think anyone including marcus himself will agree with what youve said, i think lerena will certianly be a future title holder in the not too distant future now that he has found his feet, telly track have the makings of a good show, hope someone picks up on this and get the right person to do the interview, maybe james goodman

Pirates and Mister a you have probably forgotten what I still have to learn about this game. My comments refer to a short racing history, 2005 onwards. I have to agree that the loss of riders such as Mark Khan is a huge loss to racing. I also rate Richard Fourie. I think the experience of the island will do him and Brandon good. I believe they will come back better riders.

You both would probably know more about big yard domination and how talent has been nurtured by the bigger yards over the years. There seems to be some serious structural issues in racing. By this I mean dominance of certain owner / trainer / Jockey combos to the exclusion of many other jockeys. Do you view this as a valid point or not?

By the way I see MDK is giving Gavin a few good ones to ride. Let's hope this is an in for bigger things for him.