Who is South Australian greatest jockey? The Advertiser’s Lincoln Moore rates the top 10 South Australian jockeys of all time
STREAKY Bay export Kerrin McEvoy will be searching for his third Melbourne Cup when he partners Cross Counter on Tuesday. Is he our greatest ever hoop? Lincoln Moore rates the top 10 SA jockeys, with a bit of help from Bruce McAvaney.
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IS Kerrin McEvoy South Australia’s greatest-ever jockey?
The boy from Streaky Bay can enhance his claims to that title — at the head of a brilliant list — when he partners Cross Counter in search of a third Melbourne Cup next Tuesday.
Comparing jockeys from different eras is a far-from-easy task.
SA has been blessed with great horseman; some of the best trainers in Australia — such as the Cummings and Hayes families — started their careers in Adelaide, while the riding talent is second to none.
Pat Glennon, Jim Johnson, John Letts and Billy Pyers were widely regarded as world class in their time, while McEvoy is the poster boy of the modern era.
Highly respected commentator Bruce McAvaney said SA had been rich in talent for a long time.
“It’s very difficult when it comes to ranking people,’’ McAvaney
“I think McEvoy is as good as anyone we’ve ever had.
“I’m not saying he’s the absolute best but he’d on the same line as Pat Glennon, Jim Johnson, Billy Pyers and Lettsy.
“I don’t think any of those guys are any better.”
McEvoy, a recent inductee in SA Racing’s Hall of Fame, will no doubt one day find himself alongside Glennon, Johnson, Pyers and Letts, who also dominated racing in Adelaide, in the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.
“Johnson, Pyers, Glennon and Letts were household names here, in terms of local flavour those guys are ahead of Kerrin due to their huge bodies of work here on Adelaide tracks,’’ McAvaney said.
“Pat Glennon was unique, the only man to ride Arc, English Derby and a Melbourne Cup winner during his time — they are the three great races of the world.
“His overseas record is outstanding, and he rode Seabird, who a lot of people say the second-best horse Europe has seen.’’
Jimmy Johnson was a three-time Melbourne Cup-winning rider who, after dominating Adelaide’s riding ranks, went to Melbourne to take on — and beat — the best.
“Tobin Bronze and Jimmy, Rain Lover and Jimmy, we’re talking big stuff,’’ McAvaney said.
“And he won three Melbourne Cups.
“Billy is a little behind without some of the Melbourne spring majors. The Melbourne Cup is not the be all and end all, but it’s massive — it’s the Olympic gold medal for an Australian jockey.”
That’s where Letts’ amazing affinity with the Cup is truly special.
“It’s pretty remarkable; Lettsy goes to Flemington having never ridden the track and gets on horse he doesn’t know … and wins the Melbourne Cup,’’ McAvaney said.
“And then (he) produced a front running ride on Beldale Ball.”
Working against Letts’ and Johnson’s claims as the best is their lack of success internationally.
“Billy Pyers was very successful in France, what Johnson and Letts probably don’t have is great records overseas,’’ McAvaney said.
“Glennon had it, Pyers had it and McEvoy has it.’’
McAvaney said most impressive has been McEvoy’s ability to re-establish himself as one of Australia’s best riders after ending his association with Godolphin and Darley.
“Kerrin’s been advantaged riding for Godolphin and Darley, but I think where has he absolutely shown his true worth has been the last three of four years since he went freelance,’’ he said.
“If you’d asked this question three or four years ago you wouldn’t have him as highly rated.
“He was battling to get rides for a few months but his ability to come back to the top has been fantastic.
“The other thing — there is an irony — he’s arguably the best distance jockey in Australia and is incredibly good on front runners in distance races, yet he’s ridden the past two winners of The Everest,’’ he said.
KERRIN MCEVOY
DUAL Melbourne Cup-winning jockey, Kerrin McEvoy has ridden more than 60 Group 1 winners throughout the world.
McEvoy shot to fame by winning the 2000 Melbourne Cup on Brew — the second youngest ever winner of the race (behind Peter St Albans) at age 20 — before the joining the powerful Godolphin stable in Europe, where he rode 121 winners from 531 starts, including six Group 1 wins between October 2002 and November 2010.
His major English success came in the 2004 St Leger at Doncaster on Rule Of Law, after coming in a close second at the Epsom Derby.
He won a Caulfield Cup aboard All The Good 2008.
McEvoy returned to Australia riding under Godolphin’s Darley banner, recording another 20 Group 1 wins, and adding a second Melbourne Cup to his resume in 2016. He’s also ridden the winner of the $13m Everest for the past two years.
PAT GLENNON
PAT Glennon rode his first win at age 13, with his Melbourne Cup success coming in 1950 when he picked up the ride aboard Comic Court.
Nine years later, Glennon recorded a second Melbourne Cup win, this time aboard Richard Roden-trained Macdougal.
He also had an impact in Ireland and France.
Glennon rode for trainer Vincent O’Brien and won a jockeys’ premiership in the Emerald Isle.
An association with French trainer Etienne Pollard took Glennon to France, where he was paired with what many consider as the greatest flats racer of all time, Sea Bird. Together, they won everything in sight in 1965, notching five Group 1 victories, and finishing the season with wins in the Epsom Derby and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
These two victories, along with his earlier Melbourne Cup triumphs, give Glennon the singular distinction of being the only Australian jockey to win all three of those events.
JIM JOHNSON
JIM Johnson won three Melbourne Cups, the first on Gatum Gatum in 1963, before partnering Rain Lover to victory in 1968 and 1969.
Johnson won nine weight-for-age races and enjoyed success with Winfreux and Tobin Bronze, the horse that supplied a Caulfield Cup and two Cox Plates victories.
Johnson won four Adelaide Premierships and one in Melbourne, before retiring in 1976 with almost 2200 wins two his name. He was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2009.
Johnson rode more than 100 winners in a season eight times, five winners at a meeting three times and four winners in a day 16 times. He also racked up 122 trebles and 389 doubles.
WILLIAM “BILLY” PYERS
WILLIAM “Billy” Pyers was a favourite with punters, taking out the Adelaide Premiership seven times. His biggest win came in the Caulfield Cup, riding Sometime, in 1963.
Pyers won the 1967 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, 1971 French Derby, 1964 English Guineas and 1973 DC International, in the United States.
He also won the 1953 Adelaide Cup, the SA Oaks — on no less than seven occasions — and two Goodwoods in Adelaide.
Pyers also took out an Oakleigh Plate, the Golden Slipper Stakes on Pago Pago, Futurity Stakes and Newmarket Handicap.
He partnered Tulloch in his the turf legend’s only appearance in Adelaide, in the Pullman Select Stakes, while he later said that champion US three-year-old Dahlia was the greatest horse he ever rode.
JOHN LETTS
JOHN Letts retired in 1998 with 2350 winners, including two Melbourne Cups, three Adelaide Cups, the Epsom Handicap, Victoria Derby and the Australian Cup.
His first Melbourne Cup success came on Piping Lane in 1972, but disaster followed two years later. A serious fall in 1974, where he suffered a broken spine and ended up in a neck-brace, almost put an end to his career. But he worked his way back to return to the saddle, and success followed.
Beldale Ball brought Letts his second Melbourne Cup in 1980 and the first of a triple for the Hayes training dynasty. Among the other famous horses that Letts steered to victory were Grand Scale, Sir Goglio, Tango Miss, Scamanda, Ducatoon, Kings Helmet, and Redelva.
JOHN STOCKER
JOHN Stocker, who served his apprenticeship with Hall Of Fame trainer Colin Hayes, rode almost 1860 winners in 24 years.
In 1964, at age 17, he became the third-youngest jockey to win a Caulfield Cup, when successful on Yangtze. His winning ride in the same race on Hayes-trained How Now in 1976 from a wide barrier is regarded as one of the finest in the Cup’s history.
Stocker rode in 15 Melbourne Cups, with his best results a second and a third.
He was one of only three jockeys to win on the champion sprinter Manikato, with the great Tobin Bronze, Taras Bulba, and Maybe Mahal among other stars he rode in his career.
He also had international success in South Africa, Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand.
DES COLEMAN
DES Coleman started riding at 14 and spent 44 years in the saddle, in a career that delivered him three jockey premierships in Singapore, as well as successful stints in Turkey, Malaysia, England and Ireland.
He is still the only jockey to have won three Perak Derbies, a feature race in Malaysia, while on Australian soil he won the Adelaide Cup three times on Borgia (1957), Far Away Places (1961) and Dealer’s Choice (1982), and the Goodwood Handicap twice.
Other notable wins came in the SA Derby, the Port Adelaide Cup and Christmas Handicap (on two occasions).
DWAYNE DUNN
DWAYNE Dunn’s career has seen him travel around the world, claiming 15 Group 1 victories along the way, and he is still regarded as one of the safest hands in the business.
Dunn rode in Hong Kong before returning to Australia to win his first of four successive Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes, on Undoubtedly. Dunn won the 2006 Caulfield Cup aboard Tawqeet, the 2006 Stradbroke Handicap in Queensland and the 2016 Caulfield Guineas.
Dunn’s Adelaide major wins have come in the 2008 Adelaide Cup, aboard Lacey Underall, and the 2008 Sangster Stakes, on Victorian mare Response.
BOB COX
BOB Cox rode five winners at a meeting three times throughout a career which began in 1939 and spanned 34 years.
In winning nearly 1500 races, he collected every major title on the South Australian calendar (numerous times), with the exception being an elusive Adelaide Cup.
In the 1966-67 racing season, Cox amassed 90 winners in the metropolitan area — an amazing record that still stands. He rode some of the greats including Tobin Bronze, Light
Fingers, Caliente and Rain Lover, while he won the Balaklava Cup six times.
CLARE LINDOP
CLARE Lindop retired this year having ridden more than 1400 winners during her decorated career.
Along with four Group 1 victories, Lindop was the first Australian female to ride in the Melbourne Cup and is widely considered a trailblazer for female riders throughout Australia.
Lindop began her career in 1995, as a 23-year-old, and won the Adelaide Cup in 2006 aboard Exalted Time, before becoming the first woman to win a Victoria Derby, on Rebel Raider in 2008.
She won the 2009 SA Derby aboard rebel Raider, with her final Group 1 win coming in the 2011 Goodwood aboard Lone Rock.