Picture: Winning connections celebrate victory in this year’s L’Ormarins King’s Plate. (Picture: Wayne Marks).
Gary Lemke has won the LKP Writers’ Award for the second time.
WHEN PLANETS ALIGN
This is what unbridled joy looks, feels, and sounds like. And on days like these, even what it tastes like – an untapped supply coming from the sponsor’s vineyards for those who descended on Hollywoodbets Kenilworth for one of the social events on the Cape Town calendar. Any disappointment from a losing betting ticket is fleeting, like the wispy clouds that appear and disappear just as quickly, leaving nothing but clear blue summer sky.
Joy is the outpouring of emotion, a primal extended scream of “Y-O-H, B-A-B-Y!!!” as a champion jockey goes past the finishing post, his whip in a clenched right fist as he celebrates his 2,502nd career winner like it’s his first. In a sense it is, because it’s his first L’Ormarins King’s Plate victory, the race being a prized jewel in South Africa’s racing crown. This fits right at the top of Gavin Lerena’s career pile.
Joy is the world champion boxer, Kevin, brother of the triumphant jockey, capturing the final strides on his phone from his vantage point near the rails, and posting the footage in a nine-second social media video, complete with colourful audio to turn the air, well, blue.
Joy is watching the maestro 73-year-old trainer, a gentleman of the sport who took out his licence in 1981 after a cricketing-playing career fell through, bouncing like a new-born springbok across the lush turf at the finishing line, to greet horse, jockey and groom. For Vaughan Marshall, this was also a first win in this race.
Joy is that triumphant hand clasp between jockey and trainer, followed by something more intimate, spontaneous. A precise balancing act while leaning down from the saddle of the star racehorse and a sweaty kiss on the cheek. One from jockey to trainer, the other reciprocated.
Joy is the thousands of people at the racetrack, sending off screams and whoops of delight, dancing jigs and randomly hugging strangers. Headwear goes flying, high heels catch in the grass and some of the finest L’Ormarins wines are spilled in the celebrations.
Joy is the delight of those who have backed the winner. No matter that the Tote odds returned were “only” R1.80 for every rand win bet on One Stripe, now the hottest property in South African racing. One Stripe was an even shorter-priced favourite than the majestic Charles Dickens a year earlier. Yes, he was that popular.
Joy is the reaction of the winning breeders’ Drakenstein Stud representation, celebrating inside the big white marquee tent stretching adjacent to the finishing post. And let’s not forget winning owner Rikesh Sewgoolam, a humble man who steers away from the spotlight. “I broke down in tears when One Stripe won the Cape Guineas three weeks before and I wasn’t much stronger when watching the L’Ormarins King’s Plate at home with my family. It was so humbling.”
On this first Saturday of 2025, Cape Town was showing off. Under those clear blue skies, the physically impressive equine and human flesh causing endless rubber-necking. Sporting royalty was dotted everywhere, from legendary golfers Gary Player and Ernie Els to Olympic champion Chad Le Clos.
The fact of this being another year of L’Ormarins sponsorship wasn’t lost on the occasion. Pass the bubbly. Private Cuvée anyone?
At exactly 4.14pm, when the provisional result – 5-12-10-6 – was displayed on the electronic Toteboard, the volume at the racecourse had been cranked up to number 10. If you know, you know.
Heroes and winners everywhere. Despite the emotion and exhilaration of the other eight races on the day, this was after all the main act. Who won the Cartier Sceptre Stakes? Who won the Cartier Paddock Stakes? Who won the Anthonij Rupert Wyne Premier Trophy? The aficionados will confirm they were Asiye Phambile, Double Grand Slam and Rascallion. But, everyone knows One Stripe won the L’Ormarins King’s Pate.
To experience these joyous moments the planets had to align, just as they had when the Springboks won the 2023 Rugby World Cup when they beat France, England and New Zealand by one-point margins in successive knockout matches. It’s easy to go from hero to zero when there’s so much at stake and the modern phenomenon of keyboard trolling is amplified when the spotlight is on an individiual.
And on L’Ormarins King’s Plate day, Lerena was that individual. The jockey in the saddle of the favourite in the most prestigious mile race in South Africa. No pressure.
****
Lerena had arrived in Cape Town from Johannesburg that Saturday morning. He had a lot on his mind, obviously. Less obvious was that at the forefront of his thoughts was his daughter, who had broken her arm in an accident the night before. A loving husband to Vikki, a committed father to their three children, and a devout Christian, the 39-year-old would probably rather have been in Johannesburg with his family given the circumstances, than on work duty in Cape Town. However, he is the consummate professional and horseman from the top of his head to the very tip of his shiny black riding boots.
The acclaimed jockey had five rides before the big one, with two thirds his best returns. As professional as he is, he admitted that One Stripe had dominated his equine thoughts for the entire week’s build-up to the King’s Plate and on the day itself.
“Yes, there was pressure, but it all lifted the moment I climbed aboard One Stripe in the pre-race parade,” Lerena said. “I could sense he knew we were there to make history. He had a different feel to when he played up before the Guineas three weeks before. He knew he was going to do something special. In this moment, I knew our destiny awaited.”
Lerena cantered to the starting gates on the heavily-supported favourite, feeling the sweat in his palms as the sun baked down. When he arrived behind the stalls, he dismounted from One Stripe, to help alleviate the effect of weight the horse would carry for the most important assignment of his young life. He approached a groom and was handed a white towel. “I don’t wear gloves when I ride, so I had pre-arranged that the groom would be there at the start to help me dry off in the heat. And for me to wipe down One Stripe, to clear the sweat from running into his eyes and to clean his mouth.”
The groom’s name at the start was Boxer, which fitted the occasion like a hand in a glove. Because Lerena feels that if One Stripe were a human athlete the closest resemblance would be the greatest-ever boxer, Muhammad Ali. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, Muhammad, Muhammad Ali. “Yes, that’s exactly what One Stripe is like!”
The planets had aligned.
After a wipe down of human and horse, Lerena got ready to rumble on One Stripe and begin the loading process. He took off his jockey’s skull cap, covered with the owner’s orange silks and matching pom-pom. He looked at it and put it back on. A minute later he took it off, looked at it again and put it back on, tightening the strap. Was this nerves, was the strap not tight enough, was it too tight, would it mean it might slip during the race? Was this cause for concern to those backers watching through their binoculars?
Not at all.
“I have a cross on the outside of my cheek strap and it has become a habit of mine to look at it before a race. It’s to ask the Lord for his blessing to keep me and the horse safe and everyone else in the race, and my family.” And of course, right now, with a special emphasis on his daughter.
Then, all 13 runners loaded in the stalls, with the crowd ready to anoint their new king less than two minutes later.
Second favourite Snow Pilot and the 75-1 outsider Montien were contesting the lead early on and commentator Alistair Cohen’s first mention of the favourite was to say, “One Stripe is locked in a midfield spot as See It Again got just ahead of him”. What was going through Lerena’s mind at that point?
“It was quite a rough race and I had contact coming out the gate. It was noisy out there. As a jockey I can’t hear the commentator and if I do it’s on a day when there aren’t many people on the course and I’m winning by a big margin. I was shouting a bit at Rachel (Venniker) who was close to me on See It Again. She was shouting back. She really gives as good as she gets!”
Cohen mentioned One Stripe once more before the field turned into the home straight. The next call came with 350m remaining. “One Stripe in between horses, got four lengths to make up, he’s getting closer”.
To the naked eye it looked as though the 14-1 chance Gimme A Prince was travelling best and he looked a likely winner with 200m to go. “Not as far as I was concerned,” Lerena confessed. “I knew that I’d won the race from when I got on him in the parade ring!”
Cohen’s commentary confirmed history. “They move to the final 200m, it’s Gimme A Prince, Montien … and One Stripe bursting in between them. In front is Gimme A Prince, but One Stripe snapping away and One Stripe … the prince became a king.”
“Y-O-H, B-A-B-Y!!!”
****
Less than 24 hours later an oasis of calm had replaced the frenzy of the day before. Sunday feels like Sunday everywhere in the world.
One Stripe was eating his hay in his barn at Milnerton’s Koeberg Road stable complex, oblivious to the commotion he had been at the centre of.
An emotionally-drained, but elated, Vaughan Marshall cast his expert eye over his champion colt, the son of his 2020 Cape Town Met winner One World. He had waited 43 years for this moment as a trainer and when it came he acted as graciously and humbly as he has lived his life. After his morning priorities he’d settled down and watched his beloved Proteas cricketers continue their Test progress against Pakistan at a sun-kissed Newlands.
Rikesh Sewgoolam used the day to reflect and respond to the avalanche of well-wishers and give thanks to those who had been part of the emotional journey. “One Stripe is such an amazing horse and certainly a once in a lifetime champion. We all dream of owning a horse such as him and to actually own him is simply surreal.”
Jockey Gavin Lerena? Back with his family on a bleak Johannesburg Sunday, a world removed from the day before. Plans to ride at Turffontein were shelved due to the meeting’s weather-enforced abandonment, but he had attended church, as usual. Wife Vikki had taken their daughter back to hospital for a routine check to her broken arm but the family would spend the rest of Sunday together.
The origin of toasting champagne is to offer thanks to the gods for good health. The Lerenas still have the bottle of L’Ormarins Private Cuvée given to the winning jockey, and soon the cork would be popped and it would be celebrated with family with gusto, appreciation, and joy. All when the planets aligned, of course.