IT was one of the most unlikely comebacks since Lazarus. Mark Khan, given up by the medical profession eight years ago and virtually written off when injuring himself yet again when he tried to resume at the beginning of this season, talked himself into a mount in the South African Derby and won the race on a horse nobody thought had a hope in hell.

Mark Khan, five-time champion in his heyday and one of the few South African jockeys to ride 300 winners in a season, was forced to hang up his boots in 2010 after breaking his shoulder in a fall, before aggravating it in another fall when he also damaged his neck so badly that the doctors said no more.

Few people took him seriously when he returned last August and, although he managed half a dozen winners, he then injured his knee riding work to such an extent that he was sidelined for six months.

Most people were surprised to see him in action on Champions Day at Turffontein last Saturday yet the 49-year-old drove 55/1 supposed no-hoper Hero’s Honour into the lead a furlong out and kept him going to beat the 100/30 favourite Surcharge by a length and a half.

“Mark and I go back to 2002 when he won the Derby for me with Timber Trader but I said to him beforehand that the question mark about him is his fitness,” trainer Gary Alexander related. “Mark told me: ‘I’m a professional. I won’t let you down.’”

The winner is by Aidan O’Brien’s 2011 Hardwicke winner Await The Dawn out of an Australian-bred mare by Galileo.

EAGLE BEATEN

Four-time champion Anton Marcus was forced to miss Johannesburg’s biggest meeting of the year after breaking a wrist in a parade ring fall at Greyville the night before and his place on dual Horse of the Year Legal Eagle in the Premier’s Champion Stakes was taken by S’Manga Khumalo, champion in two of the last four seasons.

Khumalo, a little surprisingly perhaps in view of the fact that the 10-furlong trip was beyond Legal Eagle’s best, elected to make the running on the favourite. Nother Russia, supposedly his biggest danger, sat close but both were burnt out before the end with Legal Eagle managing only eighth behind Coral Fever, a five-year-old trained locally by Robbie Sage and a son of the former Henry Cecil horse Judpot.

Rider Muzi Yeni explained how the favourite’s tactics played into his hands: “I was praying for a good pace and, when I got it, I always felt I was going to win.”

The Computaform Sprint, one of the country’s two top five furlong races, went to Attenborough (by the American-bred and raced Western Winter) trained in Cape Town by Joey Ramsden who shrewdly overcame the altitude problem by sending the four-year-old to the Highveld several weeks beforehand.

UNDER LIGHTS

Stardance, one of the two best three-year-old fillies in the country, was beaten at 1/4 when she reappeared in the KZN Guineas at Greyville at the end of last week. Apparently the reason was that the race was run in the evening under floodlights, something she had never encountered before.

“I could see there were problems the minute she came into the parade ring,” said trainer Justin Snaith. “As a result she wasn’t as settled in the race as she would normally be. Had the race been run in daylight I am sure she would have won. Hopefully she has learned from it and will be OK next time.”

Delpech battles through injury

ANTHONY Delpech, 49, who had to have an operation on his spine after a bad fall in the SA Classic at Turffontein just over a month ago, has not given up hope of riding again - possibly as early as next season.

Wife Candice said: “At this stage we are unsure what the extent of the neurological damage is but we will re-evaluate his situation with the doctors in six months’ time. At the moment they are unsure how long he will be off but we expect it to be a minimum of six to eight months.”

He is doing plenty of walking but the fall and subsequent surgery have affected his hands.