{"id":21836,"date":"2013-08-12T13:14:58","date_gmt":"2013-08-12T11:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/khumalo-is-shaking-up-south-african-horseracing\/"},"modified":"2013-08-12T13:14:58","modified_gmt":"2013-08-12T11:14:58","slug":"khumalo-is-shaking-up-south-african-horseracing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/khumalo-is-shaking-up-south-african-horseracing\/","title":{"rendered":"Khumalo is shaking up South African horseracing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t \"Jockey<\/a><\/p>\n

Jockey S\u2019Manga Khumalo on the winning horse Heavy Metal after making history in the Durban July. Photo: Jackie Clausen<\/p>\n

The first time S\u2019manga Khumalo encountered a horse, he was scared.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really nervous,\u201d he recalled. \u201cAt that time I was a small boy weighing about 30kg and here\u2019s this big animal, 500kg, next to me. It terrified me a little bit but it grew in me and I ended up getting better at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

So much better that, 14 years later, Khumalo has made history by becoming the first black winner of Africa\u2019s biggest horse race<\/a>\u00a0– the Vodacom Durban July.<\/p>\n

With his crystal stud earrings, peroxide hair and horseshoe tattoo on his hand, the 28-year-old \u2013 nicknamed \u2018Bling\u2019 \u2013 is the charismatic rising star of a sport long associated with South African white privilege.<\/p>\n

It all began when Khumalo, one of five children of a domestic worker in KwaMashu township near Durban, was switching from school to school to escape the violence that scarred South Africa in the early 1990s. As the smallest boy in his class, he wasn\u2019t likely to win many fights.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther kids called me names like \u2018small one\u2019 and \u2018shorty\u2019. I always prayed and said please God, let me be taller, at least people won\u2019t tease me.\u201d<\/p>\n

But small was beautiful in the eyes of a talent scout who came to black schools looking for potential jockeys and set Khumalo\u2019s future off on an entirely different path.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the guy asked me if I was interested, I said yes. At that time I was 14 or 15 and didn\u2019t have any plans but when this opportunity came I took it with both hands and I haven\u2019t looked back since. I had all the features: the body build, the shoe size and the height. When they did the interviews, everything went well.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2000, Khumalo joined the Durban jockey academy, a tough five-year apprenticeship of early starts, mucking out stables and cleaning horses after riding them. It included a spell in Zimbabwe, where he rode his first winner.<\/p>\n

Asked if he had experienced racism during his career, Khumalo replied: \u201cPeople are not the same. There are some people who will take you in and there are some people who will always have negativity. But I\u2019m not the type of guy who looks back, I just keep my cool and just do my work.\u201d \u2013 The Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to watch a video of Khumalo\u00a0talking to David Smith about his path to success.<\/p>\n

\"Enhanced<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jockey S\u2019Manga Khumalo on the winning horse Heavy Metal after making history in the Durban July. Photo: Jackie Clausen The first time S\u2019manga Khumalo encountered a horse, he was scared. \u201cI was really nervous,\u201d he recalled. \u201cAt that time I was a small boy weighing about 30kg and here\u2019s this big animal, 500kg, next to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[3258,830,885],"class_list":{"0":"post-21836","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-mysport","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-sport","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21836\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}