Tasmanian apprentice Jackson Radley set to move to Lindsay Park with the backing of riding great Damien Oliver

Having retired riding legend Damien Oliver as a mentor will be massive for Tasmanian apprentice Jackson Radley when he brings his talents to Victoria to ride for the Hayes camp in the coming weeks.

Emerging Tasmanian talent Jackson Radley will soon make the move to Victoria to ride for trainers Ben, JD and Will Hayes.. Picture: Clare Pettit

Tasmania’s latest riding talent is on the verge of qualifying to ride in Victoria full-time and he has riding legend Damien Oliver behind him.

Jackson Radley is set to move across Bass Strait to ride for the powerful Lindsay Park stable of Ben, JD and Will Hayes once he completes a requirement to shift his indentures to the mainland.

Radley sits second on the Tasmanian jockeys’ premiership and had his bags packed to move to Melbourne before being informed he had to wait a little longer for his crack at the Victorian riding ranks.

“I think I’ve ridden 77 winners and I think I was on 70 winners three or four weeks ago and had everything ready, all my paperwork signed to make the move over,” Radley said.

“My partner and I were ready to move over with everything signed then the Hayes stable rang and said, ‘we’ve got some bad news, you can’t come over until you’ve ridden your 80 winners’.

“They said I could either try my hardest to ride 80 winners, which I don’t think was possible in Tassie at the time, because it would take longer than a month, which it has.

“If they’re still happy for me to fly in and out, I’ll do that, then go over when I can.”

Radley could make an immediate impact when he rides full time in Victoria, given he can still claim 1.5kg at the provincials and 3kg in the metropolitan arena.

He will also have many lessons learned from hours spent discussing his rides with Hall of Famer Oliver, with whom he speaks often.

Recently retired superstar jockey Damien Oliver has become a mentor to promising Tasmanian apprentice Jackson Radley. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Radley said he and Oliver had a mutual friend through which the 125-time Group 1 winner offered to help the youngster learn his craft.

“Obviously, when you get an offer of help like that, you’d be mad to turn it down,” Radley said.

“He (Oliver) said, ‘you’ve got to get into a good stable’ and that’s exactly what he did.

“He rang the Hayes boys and asked if they would be interested in an apprentice from Tassie.

“I was still claiming three in town and they indicated they would be so it just went from there.”

Radley rode at Moe without success on June 19 but could post his first Victorian wins from a strong book of seven rides at Monday’s Pakenham Synthetic meeting.

“(Tasmanian premiership leader) Anthony Darmanin rides a lot of trackwork over there and he knows a lot of the horses so I said to him, ‘do you reckon I’ve got any chances’ and he said I could have a big day,” Radley said.

Melbourne-based Tasmanian Craig Newitt, who helped Radley when the apprentice regularly found himself in the stewards’ room early in his career, said the talented young rider would impress in Victoria.

“He’ll make it over here, not a worry in the world,” Newitt said.

“He’s going to be a top jockey.”

Originally published as Tasmanian apprentice Jackson Radley set to move to Lindsay Park with the backing of riding great Damien Oliver