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Veteran jockey Felix Coetzee registered his 3500th career win in the G3 Matchem Stakes at Durbanville on Sunday.

Coetzee reached the milestone with a clever ride on the Justin Snaith-trained Changingoftheguard, one of four winners on the day for the trainer with three ridden by popular jockey.

Coetzee brought Changingoftheguard down the outside as the favourite King Of Pain was caught in a pocket and could not make up the leeway when he got clear.

Snaith said Changingoftheguard had suffered from shin soreness that had set him back badly early in his career and is now on target for feature honours this season.

Changingoftheguard was winning his third race with three placings from 8 starts.

Coetzee, well into his 50s, has no plans to close down his career.

"I’ve had a lot of fun working on my physical and mental health recently. I do it to keep on top.” Coetzee said.

"I think it’s just a character trait. I’ve always thought there is room for improvement. I’m still learning a lot of new things."

Coetzee passed the 2000 winner mark in South Africa in 1992 before leaving for a stint in Hong Kong that lasted 16 years.

He recently decided to collate his riding statistics from Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau, Dubai and Mauritius and added them to his South African tally to realise he was closing on 3500 wins.

Coetzee regards the world class sprinters Silent Witness and Rocket Man and the brilliant “Galloping Gold Mine” Empress Club as the three best horses he has ridden.

Hong Kong champion Silent Witness brought him worldwide fame when passing he recorded 17 successive wins, surpassing the 16 successive wins of Citation and Cigar.

The Pat Shaw-trained Rocket Man is regarded as the best horse to ever race in Singapore while the Terrance Millard-trained Empress Club was one of the greatest fillies to have graced the South African turf.

However Coetzee reckoned the first horse he ever won on, a quarter horse named Middleberg, was almost as quick as both Silent Witness and Rocket Man and regarded him as one of the three fastest horses he had sat on.

He rode Middleberg in a race at Richmond near Pietermaritzburg, which provided him as a young kid with his first and only win as an amateur.

Coetzee joined the South African Jockey Academy in the 1970s and his first winner under rules was aboard Royal Drummer, trained by his father with whom he served his apprenticeship.

Coetzee’s first major win was on Kentford in the Clairwood Winter Handicap in 1975 while his biggest break came when he was signed by the great Cape trainer Terrance Millard as his stable jockey in 1982.

This partnership brought him many G1 wins including three victories in the Vodacom Durban July. Millard also gave him five of his record-breaking eight Gold Cup victories.

Coetzee had another lucky break in Hong Kong in 1998 while lying in a hospital bed awaiting surgery and contemplating an ordinary looking future.

His first few seasons in the notoriously competitive racing environment had been inauspicious, so he was amazed when Tony Cruz, a six-times champion jockey who was enjoying early success in his training career, paid him a visit and offered him a retainer.

Coetzee helped Cruz to his first Trainer’s Championship in the 1999/2000, a title he recaptured in 2004/2005. The partnership also brought Coetzee the inestimable bonus of riding Silent Witness.