As the new SA Horse Racing Season gets into full swing this Spring, The Punter is taking a look back at the 2024-25 Season. So far, we’ve looked at SA’s racehorse trainers and jockeys to follow for profit based on their performances last season. Now this week, let’s take a look at trainer-jockey combos to follow based on their win and place strike rates. Read on below for a list of SA’s Best Trainer-Jockey combos from 1 August 2024 – 31 July 2025.
Firstly, here’s some overall observations:
- These stats show which trainer-jockey combinations had the best win and place strike rates in 24-25
- The stats only look at partnerships of 30 rides or more. This covers the bulk of rides across the season, including all the big yards, their main riders, and main partnerships of the medium-to-smaller yards.
- What we don’t see in these stats are the successful micro-partnerships under 30 rides. These might involve small yards, or shorter opportunistic partnerships between a particular jock and stable, maybe during a certain part of the season, or at a particular racetrack, or as a fill-in partnership when a stable jock gets injured or suspended. We’ll be looking more closely at these types of partnerships as the new season progresses.
But now to the main focus on this article, the data on SA’s best trainer-jockey combos last season:
The Punter’s Analysis
The most striking thing about this table is that 5 out of the top 11 partnerships all involve Gavin Lerena, showing just how good his 24-25 season was. Lerena was also a profitable jockey to follow at certain racetracks, read The Punter’s full analysis of profitable SA Jockeys to Follow in 2024/25 here.
KZN Trainer Peter Muscutt – who has the highest win percentage of any trainer at 22% – managed a hefty 35% win strike rate with Lerena up. While Lerena travelled all over, his next four best partnerships were on the highveld, with Tony Peter (32% wins), Roy Magner (31%), Michael Azzie (30%), and Johan Janse van Vuuren (29%).
Lerena’s partnerships that just missed out on this top 11-list were with Alyson Wright in KZN (24% wins), and Vaughn Marshall in the Cape (22%).
Just behind Muscutt-Lerena, SA’s second most potent trainer-jockey combo last season was S’Manga Khumalo for Fabian Habib (34%) on the highveld, with Khumalo’s partnership with KZN-based Gareth van Zyl just missing the top 10 cut (24% wins).
Eastern Cape champion trainer Alan Greef takes third spot for his top partnership with Richard Fourie (32% win ratio). Greef and Sean Veale also make the list, with a 27% win strike rate largely with Hollywood-owned horses as Veale is the retained jock for that owner.
Fourie also another entry in the top-11: a 25% win strike rate for Justin Snaith, who he used to do stable jock duties for.
Remaining partnership making up this best-of-the-best list are Paul Matchett and Craig Zackey (31%), and Sean Tarry’s partnership with now-retired Piere Strydom (25%), which was also Tarry’s best across a number of trainer-jock combinations.
If you’re interested in which SA Racehorse Trainers delivered profit for punters in 2024/25, read The Punter’s full analysis here.
Best Eastern Cape Trainer-Jockey combos
Zooming into the provinces, besides Greef’s partnerships with Fourie and Veale, other notable combos include long-time allies WGC Miller and Marco van Rensburg (23%), followed by Gavin Smith and Craig Zackey (20% wins).
Best KZN Trainer-Jockey combos
We’ve already chatted about Muscutt-Lerena’s dominant KZN showing, and the Van Zyl Jnr-Khumalo and Wright-Lerena duos. Next up was MJ Odendaal and Sean Veale (23% wins largely for Hollywood), followed by Stuart Ferrie and Veale (21%, again majority Hollywood-owned).
Best Western Cape Trainer-Jockey combos
Only Snaith-Fourie made the top-11 list, which shows a competitive environment in Cape Town. This was followed by Candice Bass and Aldo Domeyer’s 22% win strike rate, Lerena-Marshall also at 22%, Brett Crawford and Richard Fourie’s Ridgemont-driven partnership (21% wins), and Adam Marcus and Grant Van Nieker (20%).
Best Gauteng Highveld Trainer-Jockey combos
We’ve already mentioned Lerena’s list of successful pairings (Peter, Magner, Azzie and Van Vuuren), as well as S’Manga’s 34% return with Habib, Matchett-Zackey’s 31% and Tarry-Strydom’s 25%.
This is followed by Mike de Kock’s returns with Callan Murray (24%) and Muzi Yeni (22%), both of which included rides in KZN and GP.
Other honourable mentions go to:
- Lucky Houdalakis – Craig Zackey (19%)
- Candice Dawson – Gavin Lerena (19%)
- Fabian Habib – Pierre Strydom (18%)
- Michael Azzie – Muzi Yeni (17%)
Best Place Strike Rates for SA’s Trainer-Jockey combinations
Lastly, let’s have a gander at the top first-4 place strike rates for SA Trainer-Jockey combos:
When ordering the top achievers by place strike rate, we see many of the top win% partnerships already discussed.
A few new ones jump out though: Dawson-Lerena top the boards with an impressive 81% first-4 place strike rate, with Dawson also yielding a 66% place strike with Muzi Yeni. Lerena features again for his 66% places with Fabian Habib (albeit with a relatively low 14% win strike).
Finally, Rachel Venniker’s highveld raiding for Paul Matchett is well worth a mention for the handsome 69% place strike rate (14% wins), although Matchett-Zackey had a significantly higher win rate (31%).
So how might these stats be useful for punters?
- It shows which yards favoured certain jocks for wins, or for places (not always both!)
- It gives some indication of which trainer-jockeys could be followed consistently this season. Bear in mind, this isn’t the full picture as we’re still missing micro-partnerships under 30 rides.
It’s important to note that last season is in the past. Things change and the past is only a guide for the new season, with new dynamics to consider.
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