As Heavy Metal gallops past the finish line at the 2013 Durban July, the mother of S'manga Khumalo ululates and dances with punters next to the track. This - including the moment that Mantombi Khumalo proudly reveals her son had told her to give up her job as domestic worker, and then bought the house of her dreams - is one of many engaging scenes in director Kevin Harris's documentary To Be a Champion.The 48-minute film profiles the rise to stardom of Khumalo, the first black jockey to win the South African National Jockey Championship. It had its world premiere on Wednesday night at the Durban International Film Festival.It was also screened yesterday at the Ekhaya Multi Arts Centre in KwaMashu, where Khumalo was born and raised. It was here, while at Mzuvele High School, that the 1.54m 15-year-old was scouted and offered a place at the South African Jockey Academy at Summerveld in Durban.mini_story_image_hleft1Khumalo started racing professionally in 2006.Harris, a recipient of a South African Film and Television Award for lifetime achievement in documentary filmmaking, said the idea of documenting the rise of Khumalo - nicknamed "Bling" because of his flashy stud earrings and peroxided hair - began after his Durban July win in 2013."The following week, he rode five winners in one day; the next day he flew to Kenya and promptly took four more wins," said Harris. "That's when I started to watch him. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to capture the journey of the first black jockey to take the crown - the South African National Jockey Championship. There is only one first time," he said.It took a gruelling schedule - often racing all day, six days a week, around the country and in neighbouring states - to keep up the tempo that led to Khumalo finally being declared champion jockey for the 2013-14 racing season, with 185 wins.Khumalo, who had seen only the trailer before the premiere, said he barely noticed Harris's constant presence during the film's making."He was wonderful," remembers Khumalo. "He said: 'Don't mind the cameras; just carry on and do what you do best.' At first, being shy, I didn't know how to cope, but I pretended Harris wasn't there."Khumalo's dazzling image hardly fits his diffident personality.Yet the racing world is highly superstitious. Khumalo said that on the one occasion he had taken off his earrings he had had a bad day's riding. "Now they are always on when I race," he said.Khumalo has had his share of injuries, starting with a broken leg, followed seven months later by a broken knee and, soon after, his hand. A concussion a week before the 2014 Durban July forced him to withdraw when he was booked for seven rides.full_story_image_hleft2It included the bleakest period of Khumalo's short career, when the National Horseracing Authority found him guilty of holding back a horse at a Vaal race in November 2013. He was banned from riding for 60 days. Had the suspension been enforced, his attempt to win the rider's championship would have been scuppered.He took the matter to the high court, where the ban was put on hold. The case is still pending...