How come SA was not invited to the Jockey challenge?

They wanted Andrew Fortune but he could not make the weights

The SA riders are good in their own backyard or coming over to Dubai and racing on a Thursday. I wonder how they will cope riding 7 days a week in the UK and sometimes riding in two meetings a day. A few have ridden in the uk and have failed misreably (obviously Roberts is the exception)

Anton Marcus could easily hold his own against the worlds best....when he went to Dubai re showed them how to ride under any circumstances!definitely one of the rides of the decade.....

Yep probably the best ride I have seen

I am NOT going to get into too much of a debate egarding skills BUT NO way could the top 5 SA jockeys EVER ride with success for 1 FULL season in the UK. Not for lack of ability but for

1: rain sodden ground from 2 weeks rain
2: cold breeches too thin
3: good ground BUT racing in a deluge of rain
4: the M25
5: not understanding that tradition/loyalty trumps ability

One or 2 good UK jocks have come to CT to ride for a while and have been ridden to sleep here so suppose it's vice versa then?

i never said good i said top 5. Now lets take last years top 5 UK jockeys
1: hanagan ( makes very very few mistakes, would learn SA courses and with support would be champion)
2: de sousa (unbelieveable emprovement from this guy, because of language SA he would get zero support)
3: fallon (fallon rode in the cape and there was an incedent, has NOT ever been given the support since)
4:hughes (been to SA a few times on a jolly , would hold his own in SA , Sadly if he was based in|SA he would have to become a trainer...TOO TALL)
5:buick (got luckybreaks here and would need them there imo. )

the bottom line is that for a "jockeys challenge" where trainers had to BE BRIBED to declare runners, one can hardly use that as a barometer for poor jockeyship.

What i can tell you is that Prince Khalid Abdulla is NOT blind, the world is very very small, and if he wanted to replace Hughes with Anton Marcus he would have made the offer.

Ill even go further , Richard Hills rides for SHeik Hamden, surely to God the sheik wathces racing from other corners of the world, surely to God the Sheik has people around him telling him which horses to purchase?? then surely there would be someone there saying " YO Sheik, that Delpech fella is better than Hills, and we can pay him in Raands" Sadly i dont think that call has ever been made. YET "top" international jockey DO ride all over the world...

Winzip wrong, Hotline right in my opinion. Worked with Fallon and he rode for us over there, Soumillon rode here for me and rode a shocker. Who won the UK championship last year? Paul Hannigan I think in the end. Not even close to Anton, Anthony and a few more here. Very nice guy but not in our top guys division IMHO.

Craig

you must be joking, hanagan is as strong and makes as few mistakes as Anton. I stand correct but one of the things hanagan gets right all the time is he does NOT get suspended and still returns winners ar 15%, which is not too bad in the UK for a jockey riding for a stable that is based in the north and whom he is very very loyal too.

Feeling here is that if he freelanced he would hit higher numbers BUT he is a great oke and rides for his boss Richard Fahey with pleasure.
Jockeys "chasing" titels have hit higher %'s in recent seasons BUT they were freelancing.

Also suppose there's more to life than UK racing......Dougie Whyte in Hong Kong stands out..champion there a few times?????....LLoyd,Marcus,,Shea,Mawing etc have done well enough for SA when racing internationally.

hotline 1000% but ONLY muis has ever conquered the UK. Dougie is a awesome jockey and so are others mentioned by you. I am NOT disputing that BUT to ride here for a FULL season on tracks that of the 60 NOT 1 is the same takes some skill.

The stakes are shit, the weather is shit BUT if you make it here youll make it anywhere.

Let me tell you exactly how good marwing is......when it was time for Horse Chestnut to ride in the states it was decided to use a local state side jockey. nuff said.

Personally i rate weich and know him quite well. I at the time and now think it was the wrong decision BUT hey Mike knows his stuff. Yet seldom do UK raiders at one of the biggest meets in the world (breeders cup) get ridden by US based jockeys.