South Africa’s only professional female jockey
Rachel Venniker doesn’t have much company in the weighing room. She’s the only woman currently riding as a professional jockey in South Africa, and she’s spent the last few seasons making that distinction count — back-to-back Champion Apprentice titles in 2021/22 and 2022/23, a winners’ tally that outpaced every other apprentice in the country, and a landmark ride in the Durban July as the first woman ever to take part in South Africa’s biggest race. Earlier this year she added an international flourish too, winning a Jockeys Challenge stakes race in Saudi Arabia.
None of that came easily. Venniker was initially turned down for a jockey’s licence for being too tall for the saddle. The man who helped change that outcome, and who got her into the South African Jockeys Academy in the first place, was Michael Roberts — a Hall of Fame jockey himself, eleven times champion at home before he went on to take the British title in 1992 partnering the great Mtoto to back-to-back Eclipse Stakes wins. A neck injury ended his riding career in 2002, and he’s spent the years since building a training yard at Greyville.
The reunion in the winner’s enclosure
On Saturday at Greyville, that mentorship came full circle. Venniker partnered Fortress of Fire, trained by Roberts, in the Declarationofpeace KwaZulu-Natal Breeders 1200. The three-year-old had been freshened up for cver a month after a third-placed run in May, and stepped back out to the track in career-best order — timing her run from a wide draw to get up in a race that has rewarded her before. It’s the second time this filly has visited the Greyville winner’s circle with Venniker in the saddle, the pair having combined for a win at the same course-and-distance back in January.
It’s the kind of result that says as much about the yard as the jockey — a Hall of Fame rider turned trainer, sending out a winner partnered by the apprentice he helped put on the path to a career of her own.
If you’re following today’s Greyville card, the full racecard and form guide is at cfox.co.za/predictions.
