Five of the six riders coming to South Africa for the International Jockeys’ Challenge have been confirmed.
The riders are James Doyle and Adam Kirby, who will represent England, Martin Harley from Ireland, Germany’s Andreas Helfenbein and Selim Kaya from Turkey.
Irishman Martin Harley, confirmed for contest.
The first four on the South African national jockeys’ log last season – S’manga Khumalo (captain), Richard Fourie, Muzi Yeni and Piere Strydom – will represent South Africa. Two local jockeys and one international rider are still to be finalised.
“This could be the most exciting International Jockeys’ Challenge yet,” said Racing Association chief executive Larry Wainstein, who organises the event.
The International Jockeys’ Challenge will be staged over two meetings, the first at Turffontein on Saturday 15 November and then at Kenilworth on Sunday 16 November.
The jockeys will ride in four races at each meeting and the team that scores the most points wins the Challenge. In the last six years, South Africa has taken the trophy four times and the internationals twice.
South African horseracing fans who follow Dubai and English racing will know Doyle from his win in the 2012 Dubai Duty Free aboard Cityscape, as well as his successes in England in this year’s St James’s Palace Stakes and Sussex Stakes on Kingman. An adaptable rider, the 26-year-old has also won Grade 1 races in Ireland and France and is currently fifth on the UK jockeys’ table this year.
Kirby, the 2013 all-weather champion jockey in England, is also 26 and is currently seventh on the UK riders’ log. Followers of English racing will know him from his wins on Lethal Force in last year’s Diamond Jubilee Stakes and Darley July Cup, in which South Africa’s Shea Shea ran fourth.
Harley (25) won the Irish 1000 Guineas on Samitar in 2012 and his other Group 1 win came aboard Tac De Boistron in the Prix Royal-Oak at Longchamp in Paris last year.
Helfenbein (46) was the leading apprentice three times in Germany and has ridden winners in Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, England, France and Macau, while Kaya, second on the Turkish jockeys’ log last season, has won five Group 1 races in his homeland, incluing the Topkapi Trophy in 2006 on Ribella.
