IPSWICH - Former South African rider Marnu Potgieter admitted he thought he finished second after a heart-stopping finish to the Channel Seven Handicap (1,350m).
Potgieter got a pleasant surprise after returning to the saddling enclosure on Brinkmanship for Gold Coast trainer Helen Page.
“To be honest, I did think I ran second,” Potgieter said.
“When I came in, for a moment I thought I ran second and not first.”
Brinkmanship ($4) beat Storm Harbour ($5.50), ridden by Jim Byrne, with Ipswich-trained Celtic Tiger ($81) half a length away in third place.
Potgieter said when he rode Brinkmanship on July 17 at the Gold Coast the gelding was out-paced and ran fifth but Helen Page was happy with his ride and said she’d put him back on next time.
“My instructions from Helen were to go forward and lead the race from the front. I tried to get to the lead in front of the inside horse but I didn’t think I’d be able to get there,” he said on Friday.
“From there I thought I’d take an easy sit behind it but I knew my horse can run around if it doesn’t sit on the fence.
“That’s why I had its head turned in all the way. I just had to keep it balanced as much as I could, and just up the straight to balance it up and go for it.
“In the last 50m, he was pretty strong in the race. I saw the horses come from the outside and the more I asked him, the more he gave me. He hit the line pretty good.”
Did it make the win more special that he beat Jim Byrne?
“Not really. I see them more as mentors, all the senior jockeys,” Potgieter said.
“I always ask them for advice. I look up to them and try to prove myself.”
After he finished school in South Africa, Potgieter went to the jockey academy there for nearly a year.
“I never rode as an apprentice jockey, but rode as a track work rider,” he said.
“They had work rider races once a month. I did about five races in that. Then I gave that up and just followed my career as an assistant trainer.
“That’s the way I came over here. But then two years later I decided to continue riding. All my friends in Victoria tried to push me to go back to riding. I was thinking of doing some picnics but they said I was pretty mad and I should go and try to be an apprentice again.
“So I took a leap of faith and tried it.”
Faced with the unlikely prospect of being accepted as an apprentice in Victoria, he moved to Queensland, where he is now apprenticed to Brisbane trainer Brian Smith.
“I went from Victoria to Mackay to John Manzelman,” he said. “Basically I looked on the list to see which trainers got the most runners, to see who would be able to support me with the rides.
“It was just a bit of an easier transition to make rather than going through all the hoops in Victoria.
“They only accept five a year and having a family made it a bit hard to make that decision so I just went for it.
“I just continued on my way and ended up with Brian.”