Why international jockeys fly into Melbourne for our biggest races

THE international contingent is poised to make its mark on four days at Flemington, and it’s not just the horses who have travelled from all over the world to try to win our best races.

THE international contingent is poised to make its mark on four days at Flemington, and it’s not just the horses who have travelled from all over the world to try to win our best races.

Jockeys covet the chance to ride in the big races like the Victoria Derby and especially the Melbourne Cup.

More and more are travelling here and most with specific rides, like Frankie Dettori, a regular visitor who has this year been given the plum ride on Almandin next Tuesday.

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Dettori has had plenty of experience in the Cup and he said only this week how much he wants to finally win one. While UK-based, he’ll be jetting in from the United States, where he is riding at the big Breeders Cup meeting in San Diego on Sunday, Melbourne time.

It might seem strange to some people that a jockey can fly around the world for one race, and sometimes just for one day, and to get on a horse they have never ridden before for the first time in a race like the Melbourne Cup.

But I’ve been lucky enough to fly over to ride in Macau and Japan this year and although I was slightly nervous, I found it easier than I thought.

Doing the form is important when you fly in, and watching replays of the runs of your horse plus the other lead-in races is crucial.

Walking the track is really important, too, and every jockey that comes in will do that in their own way, looking for things that are important to them.

A Melbourne Cup is missing from Frankie Dettori’s CV.

Racing is different all over the world but good jockeys adapt, and given the high quality of riders who come out to the spring carnival, like Jamie Spencer from the UK and Frenchman Olivier Peslier, who will ride Tiberian in the Cup, I don’t think they will have any worries.

Peslier may have never ridden in Australia before but he has won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe four times, as well as the Epsom Derby and Ascot Gold Cup.

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Jockeys like him prove each year by riding winners here that it can be done, just like a good international horse can adapt to our racing style and win the big races.

I haven’t got a ride in the Cup yet, but I’m still holding out hope that when the final field is put together, I might be a chance to pick one up.

It’s a massive day of racing on Saturday and that includes the Victoria Derby, which looks like a wide open race with no standouts.

French jockey Olivier Peslier speaks with trainer Alain Couetil after riding Tiberian during a trackwork session at Werribee.

I don’t have a ride but I do in one of the four Group 1s on the card, the Myer Classic, where I’ll be getting back on Silent Sedition.

This race has always been the target for trainer Andrew Noblet and connections — it’s her grand final.

Her past two starts have been good fifths in good company and I’ve ridden her in all her work this week and I’m thrilled with how she has come on from that last run in the Tristarc Stakes.

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This week she has drawn a much better barrier (four) and we will be able to have a nice cosy run behind the favourite Global Glamour. If she can then finish strongly, we should be right there at the end.

I’m also looking forward to riding Sheezdashing in the Wakeful Stakes. She’s by the same sire as last year’s Caulfield Cup winner Jameka, who also won The Oaks in 2015. She is a progressive stayer who is going to relish the distance.

And after the last of my rides I’ll definitely be checking out the Birdcage — hopefully celebrating a victory.