Racing: Academy best way to go

We need a jockeys' academy in New Zealand.

There is a powerful body of thought in this country that riding talent will excel regardless of how it is nurtured.

There is an argument to support that theory, but the wider picture makes it clear that an apprentice academy produces the best results.

Horsemanship is a wonderful attribute and a jockey cannot get to the top without it.

But there is another quality called dedication.

It cannot be a coincidence that the most dedicated riders in the world are continually generated from South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Unquestionably the most successful jockeys in the world's toughest racing arena, Hong Kong, come from South Africa.

South Africa and Zimbabwe are the two countries which attach their would-be teenage jockeys at an academy rather than the system that Australia, New Zealand and most Northern Hemisphere countries adopt of indenturing apprentices to licensed trainers.

Rogan Norvall, Mark Du Plessis and Eddie De Klerk are from Zimbabwe. They staggered New Zealand racing with their work ethic when they arrived in New Zealand at various times in the past five years.

Mark Du Plessis settled in Cambridge and would jump off one horse during a trackwork session and literally run to the next mount.

It immediately won him friends and, more important, raceday rides. He became a group one-winning jockey in New Zealand and is now leading the Singapore jockeys' premiership.

That same dedication won for Rogan Norvall the winning ride aboard Twinkling in Saturday's $35,000 Great Northern Foal Stakes.

Twinkling's Cambridge trainer, Royce Dowling, and his daughter and training partner Linda Laing were dedicated supporters of Du Plessis and are now just as strongly behind Norvall.

Norvall works hard. No one rides more horses in work at the Cambridge track and few would ride more horses at the barrier trial meetings.

"Like Mark before him, Rogan is a work machine," says Royce Dowling. "If I want one worked all I have to say is: 'Rogan, I've got one to gallop', and he says: 'I'll be there in a second, boss'."

If you need an example of how the academy system works, take note of the politeness of jockeys from South Africa and Zimbabwe.

It is in direct contrast to the attitude of some of our best riders, many of whom have grown a bit in the head with too much early success, the avoidance of which is drilled into South African and Zimbabwean riders at academy level.

"Mark Du Plessis is a top-class rider," says Dowling. "Rogan might not be in quite the same class, he's probably a Wednesday rider, but our Wednesday riders have become our Saturday riders.

"Where else do you find riders that will stay with you, which is such an important part of racing.

"To be successful a rider needs to get on better quality horses and Rogan has shown what he can do on this filly."

Norvall sat Twinkling behind the pace and attacked the leaders early in the home straight to win comfortably.

The Foal Stakes is one of the few opportunities left for juveniles this season, but Dowling will keep the filly going because her London-based construction/developer owner Ross Ancell is making a rare trip back to New Zealand to follow the Lions tour and would like to see his filly race.

Twinkling is by Star Way from Limitless, the mare with which Dowling won the Brisbane Cup. With that sort of breeding the filly should have it all before her.

Norvall rode the winner of the next race, Tuscan Sun, and was not the only Cambridge jockey to smile.

Kara Waters kicked home Bart to win the McGregor Grant Steeplechase on her first raceday back from breaking her collarbone last October.