Sunday, February 17, 2008

Gerald Turner

I am sure that Pierre "Striker" Strydom winning the Gerald Turner Handicap would have had Gerald’s approval. I can clearly remember one day at G.T's house when he pointed to a photo near the front door of himself winning a race and asked me "who sits like that nowadays" referring to the jockeys seat, "Strydom" I replied, "yes" he said and proceeded to tell me all about "Striker" as an apprentice with Jimmy Anderson as the stable jock, etc. Striker said "it an honour indeed to win a race named after Gerald, when I moved up to the rand he welcomed me into the group with himself, Tex Lerena, Stephen Jupp, and a few of the other guys, we had a lot of good times, it makes me proud to have Gerald see similarities in our styles although I never modelled myself on anyone, Gerald will always remain special to me as a man who tried to do everything right, he was one of the greatest jockeys of my time.

Home Page

No comments: