Four rides lined up for Murphy at Turffontein

Jack Milner

The Grade 1 Betway Summer Cup is already the richest race on the African continent and the announcement that four-time and current UK champion jockey Oisin Murphy will be riding at Turffontein on Saturday 30 November has added an international flavour to the meeting.

Murphy is engaged to ride filly Frances Ethel in the R6-million race over 2000m and now Ash Maharaj, who is his agent in South Africa, has confirmed three more rides on the day for the 29-year-old Irishman.

The Grade 2 Betway Dingaans is one of the key supporting races for the event and Murphy will be aboard Candice Dawson-trained Wild At War. The Danon Patina gelding has had two runs as a three-year-old, finishing second in both events. He was runner-up to Back In Business in the Grade 2 Betway Joburg Spring Challenge and then finished second to highly regarded Greaterix in a race over 1600m in his last start.

He drew No 7 of the 28 runners entered which means he will be able to jump from a decent draw.

Murphy has also picked up the ride on Fiery Pegasus for trainer Joe Soma in the Grade 3 Betway Fillies Mile but she will need to overcome a wide draw as she landed No 24 of the 27 entries.

However, this daughter of Captain Of All has excellent form, having won three of her six races and finished runner-up in two of the others.

Her last race was in the Grade 2 Betway Joburg Spring F&M Challenge where she put up a cracking performance to finish a 0.30-length second to Celtic Rumours.

The fourth ride at the meeting for Murphy will be Tony Peter-trained Meridius. Although this five-year-old gelding is entered in the Summer Cup, he is unlikely to make the final field and is slated to run in the Summer Cup Consolation, also over 2000m.

Brett Crawford-trained Frances Ethel is currently the 13-2 second favourite behind 28-10 favourite See It Again who is trained by Michael Roberts.

Murphy is one of those really busy jockeys and has ridden all over the world. He has ridden multiple Grade 1 winners in the UK but has also achieved Grade 1 success in Ireland, France, the USA, Germany, Canada, Dubai and Japan, and will no doubt be looking forward to adding an African Grade 1 to his résumé.

“Oisin is really looking forward to riding at Turffontein,” said Maharaj. “He has a busy riding schedule and it’s an honour that he has added South Africa to his agenda.

“Right now, he is regarded by many as the best jockey in the world and hopefully racing fans will come to Turffontein to see him in action.”

*In other news regarding the meeting, Piere Strydom has been engaged to ride Equus Champion Two-Year-Old filly in the Grade 2 Betway Dingaans.

She is set to carry 57.5kg but he is likely to carry a little overweight.

The Barend Botes-trained filly has drawn beautifully in gate No 3 of the 28 entries.