Top trainers praise legendary jockey Damien Oliver ahead of his final meeting in Melbourne
The biggest training names in the country all have one thing in common – Group 1 winners ridden by Damien Oliver.
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Cummings. Hayes. Waterhouse. Freedman.
Waller. Hawkes. Price. Moody. O’Brien.
The who’s who of Australian racing shares a common thread: Group 1 winners ridden by Damien Oliver.
The champion jockey, competing for the last time in Melbourne on Saturday, could build on his Australasian record of 129 Group 1s where it all started in 1990.
Oliver won the Show Day Cup, now called the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes, as an 18-year-old on Submariner for Bart Cummings.
• Get your free double pass to see Damien Oliver’s final ride in Victoria
Oliver will ride Vilana in the 1400m Group 1 on Saturday as a 51-year-old for Cummings’s grandson James.
The competitive fire, which has fuelled Oliver to win 3185 races from 20,305 starts (and counting), burns as fiercely and ferociously today as it did then.
Mick Price, who booked Oliver to ride Vibrant Sun in the Group 1 Thousand Guineas on Saturday at Caulfield, has always admired the jockey’s relentless drive.
“Someone asked me a year ago about D Oliver, ‘what’s he like, dealing with him, with his age and stage’, and I said it’s like dealing with a 20-year-old,” Price said.
“He maintains his mental (and) physical status in prime condition, I’ve admired that.”
• Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes runner-by-runner guide
Oliver has won five Group 1s for Price, including the 2008 Thousand Guineas on Gallica.
He also rode Price’s first winner, Arch Turn in 1991 at Yarra Valley.
Oliver has won the Thousand Guineas and Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes five and six times respectively.
“I’ve had a lot of success at Caulfield over the years,” Oliver said earlier in the week.
“It’s been a happy hunting ground for me and the Rupert Clarke particularly … it would be great to finish off on a good note, hopefully in one of those big ones.”
A seventh Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes would equal Oliver’s best tally for an individual Group 1 race (VRC Oaks).
Peter Moody, who looms as a potential fairytale spoiler in the last race on Saturday, praised Oliver for going out on top and on own terms.
“It will be sad to see him out but he’s out in form and on top, and of his own volition, which I think for champions is most important,” Moody said.
• Thousand Guineas runner-by-runner guide
Oliver rode Moody’s first Group 1 winner Amalfi in the 2001 Victoria Derby.
“We were mates as kids when I used to travel Bill Mitchell’s horses as travelling foreman and Ollie was apprentice to (Lee) Freedman many, many years ago,” Moody said.
“He’s mostly been associated with other stables, more so than mine, (but) he was a massive part of kickstarting my career, by riding that first Group 1 winner.”
Moody has favourite She Dances in the Group 3 How Now Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield with Oliver aboard the second elect, Michael Freedman-trained Queen Of The Ball.
Oliver lived with Freedman and his brothers Lee, Anthony and Richard when he first move to Melbourne as a 16-year-old.
“In any sport the tag of champion needs to be associated with longevity, whether you’re a golfer, tennis player, jockey, whatever,” Freedman said.
“I think the fact he’s 51 and still riding at the very highest level, and as fit and focused as he has been, I think is an enormous credit to him.
“It’s not like he’s struggling to get any rides anywhere, he has probably come back a notch from perhaps where he was, with some of the younger jockeys coming through.
“But the fact he rode a double on Derby Day and a winner on Cup Day, he’s still competing at the highest level on the biggest stage, at 51, it’s a huge credit to him.”
• Four-play, Quadzilla: $200 betting strategy for Caulfield
Danny O’Brien also hailed Oliver’s brilliance and longevity.
“He’s been a figurehead of the industry for 30-plus years, he started at the top, as an apprentice he was one of the best riders here and he’s going to go out one of the best riders here,” Oliver said.
“That’s probably as big a statement that needs to be made, he’s been an elite rider from his apprentice days to his last week here at the carnival and not many sportsmen do that.”
Oliver has ridden 140 winners for O’Brien including four at the highest level.
“You always know when you put him on he’s as determined as you are, or more, to ride a winner because he’s just so competitive,” O’Brien said.
“He’s as good a rider as we have had, it’s been a privilege to be in the industry at the same as him.”
Kerrin McEvoy, a triple Melbourne Cup-winning jockey like Oliver, has competed against him in Australia’s biggest races for more than two decades.
“Tough but fair,” McEvoy rated as trademark Oliver.
“It’s been great to ride against Ollie for a number of years and witness his professionalism and his greatness over those decades.
“He’s a true competitor and an unbelievable jockey.”
The only thing left to say is … Thank you, Ollie.
OLLIE’S RACE BOOK
Race 4 No.9: Herecomesthestar $19
Race 5 No.1: Indian Pacific $23
Race 6 No.1: Arkansaw Kid $2.80 fav
Race 7 No.12: Vibrant Sun $23
Race 8 No.1: Vilana $10
Race 9 No.3: Brayden Star $7.50
Race 10 No.1: Queen Of The Ball $3.40
Originally published as Top trainers praise legendary jockey Damien Oliver ahead of his final meeting in Melbourne
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