Grant van Niekerk joins Plattner Racing
Mark van Deventer
Cape jockey Grant van Niekerk, who lost his job with Bass Racing, will soon be joining Andre Nel as their contracted rider. Nel is the conditioner who takes responsibility for owner Sabine Plattner’s string of thoroughbreds.
Van Niekerk was deflated after the powerful Candice Bass Robinson yard took a business decision and released him after Sun Met day. He has kept a low profile since the end of January, whilst sitting out a suspension incurred for riding infringements during the Summer.
Meanwhile, Nel has been churning out winners for Plattner at a brisk tempo with dependable professional, Aldo Domeyer doing the steering. The jocks will effectively be switching places – as Domeyer moves a short hop down the coast to be first choice pilot at Bass Robinson’s Milnerton barn.
Nel is accepting of the change and has healthy respect for his new recruit, enthusing. ‘He’s very good. We have a string of 60 horses here in Cape Town, half are two year-olds though, so we’ really just have one string currently to race. I try to plan regular work on Fridays to give my jocks a chance to ride elsewhere – Grant will obviously be riding freelance for other trainer’s to earn a living, but we feel lucky to have got him now as first call.”
Horses run for the naturally gifted, van Niekerk and he can ride quite brilliantly when confident and in the zone. He has struggled through shaky misjudgements though when on a losing skein – perhaps that streakiness eventually counted against him and prompted the Bass team to look elsewhere.
Van Niekerk will debut for Plattner Racing on the 11th March when returning to the saddle after serving out a suspension. He is currently 16th on the Jockey Log with 49 wins from 378 mounts at a strike rate of 12%. Domeyer is situated only two places above him, winning 16% of the time with 51 victories from 304 mounts, also with a marginally higher place percentage return (62% versus van Niekerk’s 58% places to rides).