Justin Stanley to ride at Callaghan Park and Corbould Park on one day

Queensland’s busiest jockey, multiple Rockhampton premiership winner Justin Stanley, is set to achieve a remarkable feat on Friday.

Honkytonk Diva surges late to win the Rockhampton Newmarket for trainer Clinton Taylor and jockey Justin Stanley. Picture: Caught In The Act Photography CQ

Queensland’s busiest jockey, Brisbane-based and multiple Rockhampton premiership winner Justin Stanley is set to achieve a remarkable feat on Friday.

Stanley, 43, with over 2000 winners to his credit is set to ride at both Callaghan Park, Rockhampton and Corbould Park, Sunshine Coast.

How could that be I suspect you are pondering, riding at race meetings 558km apart on the one day?

Justin will fly in from Brisbane on Friday morning for his sole ride on Clinton Taylor trained Old Gold in the first Rocky race at 12.56pm.

Then Stanley will taxi it back to Rockhampton Airport for an afternoon flight to Brisbane airport to collect his car and drive the 91km to Corbould Park’s night race meeting.

Once again it is for only the one ride on the Taylor trained Divine Purpose in the sixth race at 8.08pm.

Honkytonk Diva surges late to win the Rockhampton Newmarket for trainer Clinton Taylor and jockey Justin Stanley. Picture: Caught In The Act Photography CQ

“The scheduled timing of both races has worked out well for Justin. Probably the biggest concern is the driving time up to the Sunshine Coast. Being a Friday afternoon the traffic flow can be very slow on the Motorway,” Stanley’s longtime manager and friend Don Terry said on Thursday morning.

Punters will take the tip that Stanley must rate the winning prospects of both Old Gold and Divine Purpose highly to go to such lengths to ride both.

The Justin Stanley- Clinton Taylor combination is the most successful in regional Queensland with 145 winners together in just over a four years’ association.

Justin’s hectic plans for Friday are all the more astonishing considering he had five rides at Townsville races on Thursday, February 13 before flying home that night to Brisbane.

I found, just researching Stanley’s race riding agenda in the first six weeks of 2025 to be exhausting for this old racing scribe.

He has had 87 race rides at 16 different Queensland tracks.

In the last week alone (relatively quiet by his standards) Stanley rode at the Gold Coast (Saturday) and Sunshine Coast on Sunday.

Rockhampton horse trainer Clinton Taylor and jockey Justin Stanley. Photo: Tony McMahon

Then he flew north to Rockhampton to ride four barrier trial winners on Monday for the Taylor stable before returning to ride at Ipswich yesterday on Wednesday.

This week’s busy agenda pales into insignificance as manager Terry outlined upcoming rides.

“After Rocky, Justin has engagements at the Gold Coast this Saturday and then at Toowoomba on Sunday. Next day Monday he rides at Thangool and then Kilcoy on Tuesday before Ipswich on Wednesday, Townsville on Thursday and then back to Mackay on Friday and Doomben on Saturday,” he said.

At that point I had to rein Don Terry in as I was experiencing mental travel fatigue.

Undoubtedly jockey Justin Stanley’s work ethics, loyalty and travel commitment to his profession are incomparable.

Don Terry endorses that but added icing to the cake.

“Do you know what Tony? Some mornings Justin also rides trackwork at Deagon (Brisbane). He never complains. I don’t know how he does it,” he mused.

Neither do I for that matter, but racing stakeholders Queensland wide are ever so appreciative that jockey Justin Stanley does.