Lerena's hot streak to continue

→ The Ultimate King to continue his winning run.

- Jack Milner

Gavin Lerena showed great tenacity as he fought off all the challengers to officially be crowned Champion Jockey for the second time at last night's Equus Awards ceremony held at Hollywoodbets Greyville.

It takes a lot of commitment to win the title and Lerena will have to decide whether he wants to put in the same level of travelling to retain it or restrict his movement and focus on one or two centres and the big race days.

However, that will not be in the forefront of his mind when he returns to action after a short break at Turffontein on Sunday when they race on the inside track.

The pick of Lerena's eight rides has to be rapidly improving Tony Peter-trained The Ultimate King whose consecutive recent wins under the same rider completed a hat-trick of victories for the Vercingetorix gelding who has won three of his six starts and is unbeaten since having been gelded.

This lightly raced four-year-old defied the five-point penalty for his winning handicap debut over 1600m by cruising to a follow-up success over 2000m on the Standside track four weeks ago, giving 3kg and handing out a 2.10-length beating to subsequent scorer Enflame.