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Champion jockey Piere Strydom is set to ride into South African racing history, needing only six wins to reach a career tally of 5000 winners.

Strydom and the now Sydney-based Jeff Lloyd are the only South African jockeys to have ridden more than 4000 winners.

The 48-year-old Strydom rode his 4994th winner at Turffontein last Saturday.

“I will be chuffed when I reach 5000, knowing that I will become the only South African to have ever done it, especially when remembering that we have had riders of the class of Jeff Lloyd and Muis Roberts,” Strydom said recently.

Strydom, has been six-times national champion jockey and rivals 11-time champion Michael “Muis” Roberts, winner of the British flat jockey championship in 1992, as the best jockey South Africa has produced.

Strydom’s won his sixth championship in 2012/2013, his first since the 2000/2001 season, with 211 wins. This season he is in second place with 50 wins, only three behind the leader Anton Marcus and is happy to again be in contention.

“It is very hard to go for it every year. We are not robots and to maintain the travel is very tough, although fortunately I always seem to be in a position in the latter part of the season to have a go,” he said.

Strydom singled out his father “Hekkie” as having had the biggest influence on his career.

Hekkie Strydom was a trainer in Port Elizabeth and Piere virtually grew up in the saddle, riding work for his father long before he joined the South African Jockey Academy.

Strydom became a household name in the late 1980s after moving to Johannesburg. He has twice ridden seven winners a day, has won the Vodacom Durban July three times and also the G1 HK Sprint on JJ The Jet Plane.

He ranks J J The Jet Plane with Goldmark, Jet Master and London News as the best horses he has ridden.

Strydom has ridden in Hong Kong, Australia, the UK, Mauritius, Dubai and Turkey. He had a great season in Hong Kong in the mid-1990s when he finished third on the premiership and regarded a six week trip to the UK in 1999, when he rode eight winners, as an important experience.

“It was the first time I really learnt how much one can use a horse,” he recalled. “Riding overseas is important as one can otherwise become one dimensional.

“It’s difficult to compare ourselves to overseas riders but it feels special to know that we can compete against them and beat them.”

Retirement is looming as Strydom says he would not like to ride beyond 50.

“To still be riding at 50 is crazy, but sometimes there is nothing else to do and you need to earn a living.

“There are a few options I could go into, but not training,” he said.