Yeni to ride Smart Star in Gold Cup
S. Africa’s leading jockey flies in for mission on lightweight hope
Trainer David Kok has pulled out all the stops to lure a top gun to ride his lightweight chance Smart Star in the $1.38 million Group 1 Grand Singapore Gold Cup (2,000m) at Kranji on Oct 5.
Muzi Yeni is not only South Africa’s current jockeys’ log leader, but the diminutive rider is among one of its strongest lightweight jockeys.
The 37-year-old, who goes to scale at 50kg, has picked up three other rides from Kok on the undercard to Kranji’s farewell meeting, along with a couple of outside rides from fellow South African Ricardo Le Grange (Nordic Star) and Richard Lim (Frenetic).
It is the first time that Kok has hired a foreign jockey for a big-race assignment, ironically because he knew it would be his last chance to do so.
“This is the final Gold Cup and last race day in Singapore. I have two horses running in the Gold Cup and both carry light weights,” said Kok, whose second runner Don’t Forget Boss will be ridden by regular partner Saifudin Ismail.
“After a discussion with Smart Star’s owners, we went looking for a lightweight jockey from overseas. My good friend Michael Lee suggested Muzi Yeni, who can ride light and is also one of the best jockeys from South Africa.
“We contacted Muzi and he agreed to come over for one final crack in the lastGroup1race in Singapore’s history of horse racing.”
Yeni flies in on Oct 2 and will ride trackwork for Kok in the two days leading up to the big day. Besides Smart Star, he will also get a feel of his other Kok rides Vittoria Perfetta, Sabah Star and Jo’s Legend.
A winner of more than 2,000 races in a career spanning 21 years, Yeni is not a complete stranger to Kranji racegoers.
In September 2018, he flew in for a two-day visit, including a participation in the Premier Gateway International Jockeys Challenge as one of three members of Team South Africa – which comprised the eventual individual winning jockey Aldo Domeyer, and now Hong Kong-based Lyle Hewitson.
Yeni, who has also ridden in Macau, South Korea, Greece, Brazil and Mauritius, was unsuccessful in 12 rides over the two days, but did ride one second on Money King in one of the four legs to the jockeys series and one third at the earlier meeting on Sept 23, 2018.
While he could not quite showcase his skills to the Kranji crowd, he gets a second – and last – shot at it on Oct 5.
A graduate of the prestigious South African Jockey Academy, Yeni got off to a flier at his very first year out of school in 2003.
After he came out of his time in the 2007-2008 season, he racked up big wins and milestones one after another.
He has claimed the Northern Cape champion jockey time 11 times, the Eastern Cape title twice and the Highveld championship once, but the national title has somehow eluded him.
Though there is still some way to go before the South African season ends on July 31, 2025, Yeni may get his best chance of breaking his duck this season. On top with 49 wins, he is currently 17 wins clear of Craig Zackey.
Yeni is keen to see that missing silverware join a mantelpiece already overflowing with more than 50 feature race trophies, 16 of them of the Group 1 kind.
The first of those Group 1 wins came in the 2011 President’s Champions Challenge aboard outsider Happy Landing in Turffontein. He went on to win that race three more times in 2018, 2021 and 2024.
The 2024 victor Royal Victory was the same horse he sprang an upset with five months earlier at his first Summer Cup success.
His latest and second Group 1 win in 2024 was aboard Dave The King in the Gold Challenge in June, for trainer Mike de Kock.
Some may see the uncanny similarity of the South African champion trainer’s name with his Singaporean counterpart as a good omen, but come Oct 5 at 5.40pm, it will all be in Yeni’s hands.
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