JOCKEY Weichong Marwing opened and closed the meeting at Turffontein’s inside track on Thursday with a double, the last of which came for Mike de Kock’s stable.

The headline snap by JC Photos shows Marwing on Wisaam (NZ) raising his hand after winning Race 8, with his (fore)finger pointed up and probably meant as a gesture  for Mike who was watching somewhere in the grandstand on a very rare midweek visit to the city track. Marwing had been replaced by Sherman Brown when Suyoof won last Saturday’s Gr3 Graham Beck Stakes.

Weichong enjoyed his four-timer at Turffies, especially this victory on Wisaam.

“Weichong has a 40% strike rate for Mike de Kock!” tweeted the ladies at JC Photos after the race but Mike disputed this and joked: “Weichong probably has closer to a 100% strike rate for me because he only fulfills his riding engagements 40% of the time!”

Mike said he had come to Turffontein as he would be leaving for Dubai soon and wanted to spend the afternoon enjoying the races uninterrupted for once while his team of young assistants including Mathew de Kock performed the saddling duties.

“I was just about to get bored sitting at home so I came racing on my own like in the old days,” chirped Mike from a Fourways restaurant where those very assistants had taken him to dinner after their track successes.

Malih Al Basti

Mike spoke about the winning pair and their connections, saying: “I am delighted for Malih Al Basti, who owns Talbec. Malih is the Vice Chairman of the Board at Meydan in Dubai and he supports racing worldwide and of course here in South Africa. He is one of the nicest and most honourable men I’ve ever met and one of the reasons why we’ve been going back to the UAE every year.

“Talbec liked he extra ground, he is by High Chaparral and it made a big difference today. He won well, he enjoyed the 2600m.  He didn’t beat much on form but we like him, he should go on from here and can win again.”

Wisaam (NZ) came back to winning ways in a MR78 Handicap over 1000m after a fair comeback run at the Vaal just recently.  Mike said: “It was a good day for our stalwarts, thanks to Sheikh Hamdan of Dubai for this one. He’s a nice colt by More Than Ready and he has pace and scope.”

The Talbec winning photo.