What a bad ride

Striker is one of the best jockeys riding in SA of that there is zero doubt.

A bit of humour....

I remember years ago when Andrew Fortune rode a horse for the late Andre Viviers. They had backed the horse and got beat, ran 5th.
After the race Andre asked Andrew why he never took the gap which opened in front of him 400m out, because he would maybe have won if he took it... In true Andrew Fortune fashion, he responded "because the gap was going faster than me, the gap was running on strongly"

It will always be funnier, when Andrew tells it...

Bump

Well done Striker 👍👍👍

How times change

This thread kinda pissed me off the other day but decided not to comment as im a mere occasional visitor here. Its always easy to talk...and to comment!!!! Im not Strydom fan by no means...but he,like any other jock in the world has strengths and weaknesses...any 'form student' will try and figur3 that out and back accordingly(not that i know what they are lol) but my point...its easy to comment

Striker taught the boys how to ride today.

Is the fella "dare" who originated the thread gone into hiding along with Gary Neville ?????

Not to rub anyone's nose it it but Striker is an extraordinary jockey as his 5000+ wins and strike rate will attest to. We should not forget that by not being a stable jock he does not have access to large numbers of top horses. He selects from a small pool and makes himself available to ride, often not even getting his first choice from what is available. What he does do mostly is to give a horse the very best chance of producing its best run by great balance and good placing of his mount. It can go awry though with a bad jump, bad draw or pace and the animal might also not be in top form on the day. Lets also admit that he is human and will sometimes get it wrong. Love him or hate him but I would much rather have him on my selection than most other jocks as he has mostly lived up to his nickname over a long period in this game.

Imo - of course Striker was one of the best SA has produced as his 5,000 + wins indicate; everyone has their 'off' days - but in the last few weeks it did seem that he had more 'off' days than most, and hence the comments that started this thread; yesterday everything just fell into place again for him; for me he still rates in the top 5 or so in the country - but as he gets older, the body will not be able to produce consistently what the mind aspires to - that's life :dry: