Chamu's 89th winner!

Work rider Chamu Mabaya (47), who has ridden dozens of winners for the stable and has won a few Work Riders titles, brought the difficult customer Glastonbury Fire home for his first win at the Vaal on Thursday.

This was Chamu's 89th career winner - he's also had 351 places from 822 rides since he first appeared in a race for work riders in January 2005.

Chamu came to South Africa from Zimbabwe in 2001. His father was a farrier who worked for Paul Matchett, and he grew up around horses. He started working for Matchett when he finished school, and joined him at Randjes when the trainer, too, moved south.

Chamu placed on three of his mounts before he finally got his first winner on Matchett’s filly Arabian Gem at Turffontein on 27 January 2008. He said that going to James Maree’s academy for work riders and getting his licence to ride work changed his life, and his worked with many of the top horses in our yard, including his favourite, Majmu, and Hawwaam.

He described Glastonbury Fire as 'a difficult son of Hawwaam' and said: "He is a little bit temperamental, but he has improved in his work and it was nice to see him confirm that on the track."

Glastonbury Fire was the stable's first winner for owner Ebrahim Khan, whose brown-and-white silks were especially prominent in the early 2000s with top runners like Elusive Fort, Saddlewood and Safe Structure.

Glastonbury Fire was born from the mare Festival Of Fire, who was bred and raced by the late Lady Chrys O’Reilly. She who won the 2012 G3 Joburg Spring Challenge and finished second in the G1 Empress Club Stakes for De Kock Racing. We also trained her daughter Red Hot Rose, and another, Destiny Of Fire, is still in training at Randjesfontein.