Saddle up for the champion jockey race

Frequent flyer miles are being dished out to a small army of small people who give the airlines no headaches with being overweight.

- Mike Moon

With the first month of South Africa's new racing season done and dusted, an interesting trend has been the jockeying for position among the country's leading knights of the saddle.

More jockeys than ever are flitting between the four racing centres as they try to establish an early bridgehead for a possible later assault on the national championship.

This title has always been an honour in the local game, but it has gained additional cache in recent years with increased prize money and the opening of doors to work in bigger and more lucrative racing jurisdictions abroad. Yesterday the leadership log had five jockeys separated by just five winners: Craig Zackey (19), Serino Moodley (18), Muzi Yeni (17), Calvin Habib (16) and S'Manga Khumalo (15).