THE MID-WEEK INTERVIEW - THE CHAMPION APPRENTICE

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, August 3, 2011

‘The Midweek Interview’- a new feature on HRO kicks off today. In this first edition of The Midweek Interview Justin Wood, the winner of the Brisbane Metropolitan Apprentice Premiership, is joined in conversation by his brother Mitchell, who finished runner-up in the Premiership, and his father Mark, who has served as a mentor to his two sons who followed him into a career in race-riding.

Justin: “Winning the Apprentice Premiership was always a goal of mine. I knew this year would be the year if I was going to take one out. Unfortunately circumstances really limited my riding time as such. I was out of the saddle for over five months … nearly half a year I missed out on riding so I’ve been very fortunate to have done enough to still win the Premiership.

“With Mitchell running second it’s been a great family result. Mitchell was a close second for a while and it looked to be there for the taking. I thought he was going to be the one to pip me. It was just tit-for-tat at one stage. In seemed to depend on who was in and who was out … until it finally played out the way it did.”

Mark: “Earlier on I didn’t do too much with them. I let them go to their bosses and let them listen to what their bosses had to say. They ride with a different style to me. I’m old school … foot in the irons … so, with that sort of thing, I let them work out their own styles.

“They were both very respectful to blokes like Shane Scriven and Brad Pengelly … you know the blokes they were riding track-work with and they learnt a lot there.”

Justin: “Steele Ryan as a boss is better than any boss I could ask for. He was always there to support me when I needed it this season. I’ve said it before … I could murder a ride on a Saturday and he’d give me a bombing for it, but he’d give me two favourites the next Saturday to make up for it.

“He was always good like that. Just when I needed the support from him it was there and when he thought it was just time to sort of let me go and experience a few other trainers he was always supportive of that as well. He was always the first to wrap me up to the other trainers too.

Mitchell: “Yeah, we’ve always had a healthy rivalry. I guess it’s the same with any apprentices.

“We both played football as kids too, you know … and it was always a rush to see who could score the most tries or who could get the most points in a game … the best tackles.

“Obviously it is a lot different when you are racing. It’s all got to do with momentum. It’s been hard for both of us this past season because of the injuries … my ribs and Justin’s back and ribs as well … also glandular fever.

“My weight was my biggest problem. After my ribs my weight just skyrocketed. I had to give it about six weeks off to let it stabilize. In one sense, that break was probably the best thing I could have done mentally and physically for myself.

Justin: “The weight’s always a worry. We are not exactly small boys for jockeys either. I think I am the second tallest in Queensland.

“The injuries, the weight, other setbacks … it doesn’t add up in your favour. It’s just like climbing a hill all the time. You can just see the top and then you fall another hundred feet.

“My latest race-fall was a particularly bad one. I was just travelling one off. I was pretty happy sort of thing. I just remember the jockey in front of me came out. Usually when you come out you look to see if there is a head in there or not, but I was just happy to be there at one stage and then he just popped out in front of me. He gave me no warning or nothing and then I was down.

“I remember being conscious for the whole fall. I remember as I was spinning and turning around I saw a couple of horses behind me and I thought, I hope they just miss me, but they hit me and then crashed on top of me as well.

“It was a very bad fall. A few people say I was actually lucky to come out of it with what I did. The worst thing was that I was conscious for the whole time and the scariest thing was just not breathing with a punctured lung. It was just like being forever winded.”

Mitchell: “Like I say it’s all about momentum and sometimes you just don’t lose ground a little bit but, like Justin with that fall, you can get stopped dead in your tracks. I was … and it had nothing to do with a fall or an injury.

“Everyone knows about the incident that happened with me when they took my license off me. You do take a big blow mentally. You are out there riding winners and then next thing you are back at apprentice school with the trainee apprentices.

“You are obviously a long way past that stage … riding multiple winners … and then you get put back to the level where you are with people just starting out and doing their trials and that.

“It just puts you back a step mentally. You start to doubt yourself … doubt your ability … doubt whether you should even be a jockey, but you’ve just got to work through that. That’s what we did and we came back and rode doubles in town.”

Mark: “Just in the space of twenty-four hours earlier in the season Mitchell won the Listed Sunshine Coast Cup on Dalzar on the Friday night and Justin won a Quality race on Cariad for Steele Ryan on the Saturday.

“There you go, Steele Ryan trusted Justin to ride a horse … and it’s been well documented in the press … that is not a very easy horse to ride.

“For them both to win their first Listed race within about, well eighteen hours really … it was a very good weekend.”

Justin: “Yeah, Cariad obviously because of that Listed win is one of my favourite horses. The night before the race, because I know how she can be, I was just in two minds. I thought I am either going to end up in the middle of the track or she is just going to win. She is certainly one to note for me.

“There are others. Deer Valley is one that I’ve always liked to be associated with. She is just a lovely horse to ride and she has just done a lot for me.

“I think Drenalin, my first Metropolitan winner … he’s gone on to do some good things and he gave me a good kick on.

Mitchell: “For me, it’s Dalzar definitely. He’ll always hold a special spot with me being my first Listed winner.

“I said it then and I’ll say it now, I actually thought I had got beat, so it was quite thrilling when I came back and found out I had won.

“But one horse that will always be there with me is the Barry Baldwin trained Demanding Miss. I rode it from day one in the stables as a two-year-old right up through into the Magic Millions where she ran third, so it was good.

“It was good to get a ride on her come race-day. I had two rides on her. The first time she was unlucky. The second time, when she stepped up to the mile for the first time, it was a great win on her part to come from the back of the field and beat a horse called Win A Million who was actually trained by my previous boss.”

Mark: “Justin’s currently officially due to come out of his apprenticeship in October, but he has had a broken leg as well as this latest injury, so he has easily missed twelve months of his apprenticeship and, on that basis, we will be looking for an extension of his time.”

Justin: “I’ve won the title now which is good, but my goal this year was actually to finish in the top five jockeys overall.

“I soon realized that wasn’t going to happen. I was up there early, but it all started coming apart when all the mishaps started to unfold. So, yeah, that would be my goal again … to finish in the top five jockeys overall. One way or another I’ll soon be coming to the end of my time and then I want to see if I can establish myself as a proper senior.

“That’s always the goal … to be ready and able to take the next step every time.”

Mitchell: “I’ve got a nice two years still to go as an apprentice. My aim is to win the Apprentice Premiership title next season.

“The apprentices here they don’t seem to be getting the rides that the Sydney and Melbourne apprentices seem to be getting. My goal for next season is to ride thirty-five metropolitan winners for the season, because the top apprentices these days can only seem to rack up twenty, twenty-one winners, so I’m setting the bar at thirty to thirty-five winners.

“After that I really want to give Sydney a go. It’s just always been another goal of mine. The apprentices in Sydney and Melbourne they are the only apprentices to get in the papers. They get the write-ups. They get the rides. Everything seems to be about the apprentices in Sydney and Melbourne.

“The Brisbane boys … we’re sort of the underdogs of racing. We don’t seem to get the credit we should. You know there are a lot of talented riders in Brisbane. We just don’t seem to get the credit we should or the publicity we should.

“Even in our Queensland papers they write about the Sydney and Melbourne boys.

“My main ambition is to sort of just take it to Sydney and show them that we can ride as good as they can … if not better!

“My weight is good now. After my enforced break I travelled around England. It was great. I’ve come back and the weight is just falling off me. I’m doing everything right. Plus the relocation … I’m based with Troy Hall at the Sunshine Coast now … my mind is just in the right place at the moment.”

Mark: “Both Justin and Mitchell have come a long way and they’ve had to overcome difficulties which challenged their mental and physical toughness.

“When they started race-riding I’d dissect their rides. You know, you could have been one off the fence instead of three wide, or, they could have been here instead of there … that sort of thing.

“They weren’t always willing learners early on. Quite a few arguments ensued and mother had to come in and referee but, as they got more experienced they realized what I was saying was correct and had some value.

“Even now I still dissect their races. Now they sit and they listen and they go through it and they will give me their reasons why they were positioned where they were. I’ve been out there and seen what things are like so I can understand what they are saying.

“When they say, ah this horse came back in my lap, or, this horse pushed me out … I can relate to that, whereas people sitting in the grandstand say, ah gee, that kid rode a bad race. He hasn’t. He has been a victim of circumstances. I can see both sides of the fence from that point of view.

“They are good listeners now. They’ll actually come to me and say, well this happened today and we’ll go through it and work it out.

“That’s what we’ll continue to do and hopefully more good results will follow but, whatever happens moving forward, I’m very proud of what the boys have already achieved.”

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