Crack South African hoop makes an immediate impact in Australia

It is always interesting to see how things turn out with a hoop coming to Australia from elsewhere. One thing that Hewitson has always done well wherever he has been is to judge pace well. He is a superb front-running jockey so the odds from the horse racing bookmakers are always worth a second look if he maps to get a soft lead on a runner.

Starting out in South Africa

Hewitson was born into a racing family. His dad Carl was a jockey and Lyle was in the saddle on a racehorse from an early age. March 18 2016 was the first time that he saluted on a winner and it happened to be a horse owned by his dad! 

It is remarkable given that Hewitson is only 26 now, that he found time to be champion jockey in South Africa three times while so much of his time has been spent in Hong Kong during his career. 

The first of those came at the age of just 20 when still an apprentice. He would add another pair of titles to his tally by the time he was 23 years old. Sadly for South African racing, the top young jockeys all want to ply their trade abroad and Hewitson was no different.

Hewitson’s time in Hong Kong 

Things didn’t work out for a while in Hong Kong and Hewitson found it hard to get his licence renewed in the early days but that is no issue now that he has made his name. Both Hong Kong and Japan have been very happy hunting grounds for him so far in his career.

Hewitson has saluted on 120 occasions in Hong Kong and a further 19 times in Japan, a country where it is notoriously difficult to break through. That has very much been the story of his career so far. He has had to fight hard to get to where he wants to be but it has made him a better jockey as a result.

‘Bit of a steer job for me really’

That was the reaction that Hewiston gave to his first winner at Pakenham. He had already had some rides at the track on the synthetic surface the week before for some experience and he put that to good use. 

The win was on Peridot Star for trainer Philip Stokes in the opening race on Monday. It was the third start for the filly, running well at the same track on soft on her debut in January but not so well the second time up on heavy at Bendigo. 

He will get the majority of his rides from the Robbie Griffiths and Matthew de Kock training partnership. That should be no surprise to anyone with de Kock’s father Mike not only one of the best trainers that South Africa has ever produced but also internationally renowned. 

There are no long-term plans in Australia but this is just a stint to get his name out there. Trainers will be looking at his body of work elsewhere and be looking to capitalise in the future on opportunities to bring Hewitson back.

It is only going to be a relatively short stint for Hewitson here with Hong Kong calling again later in the year. That is his main riding home but he is a name to take note of on the betting sites in the coming weeks as some of his rides might be overpriced.