Lerena awaits appeal

SOUTH AFRICAN champion jockey Gavin Lerena is living in limbo at present as he awaits the outcome of his appeal on August 18 against the severity of the sentence in the Jason Gates whipping incident.

- DAVID THISELTON

He was looking forward to riding this week as he had to take time off for the inquiry and then had to sit out a suspension, but he had to book off yesterday's Vaal meeting as he is down with the flu.

He described his championship winning season as having been mentally tough, especially due to the Gates incident, and expanded, "I stayed off social media, but my family really took it to heart and it wasn't easy for any of us." He described the build up to the incident, his spur of the moment reaction and the immediate aftermath.

Rascova

He said, "I had three winners the previous day, including Rascova winning a Gr 1, but it was a scorching day and after eleven rides there was a late night flight, so I was feeling a bit mentally fatigued. Jason's mount carried me out six horse-widths from the top of the straight to where the incident happened.

“He had switched his whip to the right hand and his horse was going straight. He then changed it back to the left hand and began whipping when there was no room to whip. He struck my filly on the chest and then struck me on my arm. I was angered especially by my filly being hit on the chest and thereafter the whip could have gone anywhere, it could have even hit me in the eye. My reaction was spur of the moment, it is fight or flight."

However, as quickly as the pull up Gavin was already thinking, "Oh my goodness, what have I just done."