Black Caviar link to $5m Quokka as jockey Jarrad Noske aims up 15 years on since great mare’s debut win
Jarrad Noske was Black Caviar’s first jockey and, 15 years on, he’s shooting for victory in the richest race he has ever ridden in when lining up in the $5m The Quokka in Perth.
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Fifteen years ago this week, 16-year-old apprentice jockey Jarrad Noske was powering down the famous Flemington straight as he scored the first of Black Caviar’s 25 consecutive wins.
Fast forward to 2024 and the jockey who is perhaps still best known in some circles for riding Black Caviar to her first two race wins is striving to add the $5m The Quokka trophy to his mantelpiece.
Noske was a raw apprentice when he saw Black Caviar for the first time in the Flemington mounting yard and rode her to a five-length romp when she made her debut on April 18, 2009.
That was 15 years ago this week.
Since then, Noske has ridden with success in Perth but also spent several stints away from racing.
For three months one winter, he worked on a WA cattle station in outback Halls Creek, 350km from Kununurra, and also rode on the outback rodeo circuit.
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In more recent years, he spent time away from racing again after taking out a dual license so he could train a small team of horses and also work breaking in and pre-training horses.
Returning to ride last year, he scored every jockey’s dream of soaring into the Group 1 club when partnering Dom To Shoot to win the Group 1 Northerly Stakes at Ascot last December.
“It was nice to win a Group 1 because I think a lot of people thought I fell off the face of the earth,” Noske laughed.
“But to bob up in a Group 1 was a good feeling. I don’t mind it when people still ask me, all these years on, about riding Black Caviar.
1ï¸â£5ï¸â£ YEARS AGO TODAY! ðï¸
â World Horse Racing (@WHR) April 18, 2024
BLACK CAVIAR made her debut at @FlemingtonVRC on April 18, 2009 - the first of 2ï¸â£5ï¸â£ victories worldwide! ð¦ðº pic.twitter.com/lOw94i7xes
“I was 16 at the time and she was one of my first rides in Melbourne. I was coming down the Flemington straight all on my own on this horse, it was a bit ridiculous.
“I knew she was pretty freakish but at the time I had no idea she was going to become one of the best we have ever seen.”
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Noske has pictures on the wall at home of him riding Black Caviar but he knows that time stops for no man.
Fifteen years later and Noske has a laser focus on riding in the $5m The Quokka.
It’s the richest race Noske has ever ridden in – he rode Rock Magic in the 2017 TJ Smith Stakes in Sydney when that race was at the time worth $2.5m.
Noske rides Mitch Pateman-trained Almighty Class in The Quokka and he is certain the three-year-old gelding is a better chance than his $51 odds suggests.
The 31-year-old jockey has partnered the galloper in both starts this campaign when running second and third.
“He’s a very talented horse, he has got a heap of ability,” Noske said.
“Two runs back, he was a moral beaten and he should have won by panels. Second-up, he might have not been as good and whenever he has raced outside the leader, he hasn’t been as good.
“We are going to ride him quiet in The Quokka, with the amount of speed that will be on.
“I was saying to Mitch the other day, we would have liked to have won the last two races but going in with a couple of defeats is not the worst thing in the world.
“He is probably a horse who has been forgotten about a bit and there’s no pressure on, it’s a free shot.”
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As for the future, Noske says is keen to ride for another decade but will need to monitor his weight and perhaps take mini-breaks out of the sport at times.
“I think I’ve got another 10 years in me, if I manage myself properly,” Noske said.
“I will still probably have a month or two off riding this winter. But I certainly don’t want to get to the point of wasting so hard that I have to have time off.”
Originally published as Black Caviar link to $5m Quokka as jockey Jarrad Noske aims up 15 years on since great mare’s debut win