Mike de Kock: secured his seventh leading trainer award on Tuesday
PICTURE: Edward WhitakerMarcus secures fourth jockeys' title on final day
South Africa: Anton Marcus finally came out on top in his battle royal with Gavin Lerena for the jockeys' championship on the last day of the season at Kenilworth in Cape Town on Tuesday.
He rode a double on Dean Kannemeyer's Scaky Phane and the Vaughan Marshall-trained Pirate Flag to take his score to 205.
Lerena, one in front at the start of the day, managed only two seconds and a third.
This was the third successive championship and the fourth in all for Marcus, 42, younger brother of Basil who was second in the Oaks on Game Plane during a successful stint in Britain.
He said: "I only really started going for the title in the last ten days. For me the championship is just a small cog in a big chain and it's nice if it happens organically rather than having to go for it.
"The support of my principal owner Markus Jooste is huge and riding his horses is a privilege."
Lerena, 27, had some 350 more rides than his rival and for anachronistic reasons his 38 winners in Zimbabwe are added to his South African total for the purposes of the championship.
He is champion there but it was the South African title he wanted. He looked drained and worn out in the jockeys' room afterwards, as well as bitterly disappointed. He said: "I am heartbroken."
Marcus said: "Gavin is a special person as well as a great jockey and for me the best result would have been a dead-heat."
Mike de Kock was champion trainer for the third successive season and the seventh time in all.
He won six of the 33 Grade 1 races and his 162-winner total was a personal best but 12 short of Geoff Woodruff's 2002-03 record of 174.
De Kock's SAR21.3 million (£1.6m) prize-money haul was SAR800,000 (£62,000) below the record he set in 2009-10.
The rest of the statistics have a familiar ring with the Summerhill Stud champion breeders for the eighth successive time while Jet Master, who died last November, is champion sire for the sixth season on the trot.
Markus Jooste and his wife Ingrid head the owners' lists for the fifth season in a row.
Leading trainers
| Name | Races won | Prize-money (Rand) |
| Mike de Kock | 162 | 21,358,325 |
| Sean Tarry | 130 | 14,177,305 |
| Justin Snaith | 160 | 11,486,052 |
| Joey Ramsdan | 99 | 9,050,392 |
| Mike Bass | 107 | 8,541,619 |
Leading jockeys
| Name | Wins | Rides |
| Anton Marcus | 205 | 695 |
| Anthony Delpech | 181 | 893 |
| Gavin Lerena | 166 | 982 |
| Piere Strydom | 128 | 826 |
| Richard Fourie | 124 | 1,018 |
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