Tag Archives: career
Despite All Odds, Damien Oliver Bounces Back
Damien Oliver is probably the best-known current Australian jockey. His is a story of talent and success, but also of heartbreak, tragedy and recovery. Its the stuff Hollywood films are made of, and its not entirely surprising that a movie based on Damien Olivers career is currently in production. “The Cup” is scheduled for release in 2009, and will feature Stephen Curry as Damien Oliver.
Damien Oliver was born in Perth in 1972 into a racing family. His father Ray Oliver was also a jockey until tragically killed in a race fall in Kalgoorlie, WA.
Damiens career started as an apprentice to Lindsey Rudland in Perth, and his first winner was Mr Gudbud in 1988 at Bunbury, WA. In total, Oliver rode 66 winners in WA and was the leading apprentice for the 1988/89 season. He then moved to Melbourne, to complete his apprenticeship with the trainer Lee Freedman. Under Freedman, Oliver did complete his apprenticeship with a total of 478 winning rides.
Olivers first Group 1 win was on Submariner in 1990, for Bart Cummings in the Show Day Cup. By the end of his apprenticeship he had 18 Group 1 wins, including the Caulfield Cup (on Mannerism). He also won the Victorian Jockeys Premiership twice as an apprentice.
Over the next decade, Oilvers career went from strength to strength. Highlights included winning the Caulfield Cup again in 1994, 1995, and 1999 as well as the Cox Plate in 1997 and 2001. In 1995, he won the Melbourne Cup on Doriemus. During this decade Damien was at the height of his profession, and he won the Victoria Jockeys Premierships five more times. Then tragedy struck.
Days before Oliver was due to ride Media Puzzle in 2002s Melbourne Cup, his older brother Jason, also a jockey, was killed in a fall during track work. Damien is on record as having said “Melbourne Cups dont mean anything to me any more Id give it back to get my brother back”. Damien then went on to win the Melbourne Cup for the second time, and flew home to Perth the following day to attend his brothers funeral. The 2002 Melbourne Cup went down in history as the most emotional Cup ever.
Oliver continued his career as a highly successful jockey, but then tragedy struck again. In 2005, during a race at Moonee Valley, he fell and was left with two fractured vertebrae, which kept him out of racing for a year. He was extremely lucky not to have damaged his spinal cord, which could have confined him to a wheelchair for life. Many jockeys with Olivers injuries would have taken the opportunity to retire. Instead he worked through a year of painful rehabilitation, and returned to the track in 2006 to come second in the Melbourne Cup that year.
In 2008, Damiens mount Mad Rush was favourite to win the Melbourne Cup, but was a little unlucky on the day and came in eighth. One gets the impression that Damien Oliver hasnt yet finished with the Melbourne Cup and will be back for another crack in 2009.
Damien Olivers story is not just that of a great jockey, its also that of huge determination and dedication to his sport. Thats why, against all odds, Damien Oliver always bounces back.
Roy Higgins
Roy Higgins is one of Australias greatest living jockeys. At the time of his retirement in 1983 he had ridden 2,300 winners during the 1960s and 1970s including two Melbourne Cups. Higgins remains closely involved with the racing industry and is the author of the 1982 book “The Jockey Who Laughed” a humorous collection of racing stories.
Higgins was born in the country Victorian town of Koondrook in 1938. He started his racing career in Deniliquin, NSW in 1953 riding the country race circuit. He probably owes his nickname of “The Professor” to the local horse trainer Jim Watters, a comment on his incredible ability in the saddle. Higgins later moved to Melbourne and become Victorias most successful jockey of the day winning eleven Melbourne Jockey Premierships, the first in the 1964/5 season.
From the very beginning of his career Higgins battled his weight. He would use tricks such as hot baths and saunas to drop his weight to 51 kilos on race day. As races in those days were Saturdays only he would take Sunday out to indulge in a traditional Sunday roast and put on five or six kilos which he would then have to take off again before the next Saturdays races. Despite his weight issues Higgins was a leading jockey for 30 years. When asked what he would do in retirement he famously said, “Id just love to be a little fat man!”
Higgins successfully rode over 2,300 winners including two Melbourne Cups both on Bart Cummings trained, New Zealand bred horses: Light Fingers in 1965 and Red Handed in 1967. Other well-known horses associated with Higgins included the miler Gunsynd, Leilani (partly owned by Andrew Peacock) and Storm Queen. In fact Higgins could have won three Melbourne Cups, he was the jockey on another Cummings-trained horse, Big Philou, the hot betting pick, for the 1969 Melbourne Cup, which was controversially withdrawn only minutes before the start, a victim of a doping scandal.
Over his 30-year career, Higgins won every major race run in Australia, often multiple times. Notable Victorian wins were: W.S Cox Plate, Caulfield Cup, four VRC Derbies, four Blue Diamonds Stakes and five VRC Oakes. Interstate Higgins won the 1962 and 1969 Sydney Cups, two Golden Slipper Stakes (1966, 1973) and the AJC Oaks six times. Higgins final ride was at Flemington in October 1983.
In 1972 Queen Elizabeth awarded Roy Higgins an MBE for services to the horse racing industry. Since retiring as a jockey Higgins has worked extensively as a racing commentator on TV and radio, particularly on Melbournes Sport 927 station. He is also a lecturer in the jockey training program at Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE.
Roy Higgins has certainly earned his place in Australias racing history. You wonder though if today he would have even got a start as a 14-year-old school drop out who struggled with his racing weight his entier career. The longevity and success of his career says as much about his determination of the man as it does about his skills as a jockey.