THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - HUNDRED-UP AND COUNTING AS ORMAN KEEPS LIFTING HIS GAME

By Graham Potter | Sunday, February 28, 2016

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily.

Sometimes it really is a pleasure to watch a young talent develop and grow towards reaching its potential.

Jimmy Orman is doing just that.

It is not only Orman’s riding skill and ever improving race-craft that is impressive, but the fact that he has taken each step up the ladder in a quiet, professional manner is equally noteworthy. Remember this is a game that chews up and spits out rising stars that get ahead of themselves and start believing their own press.

Orman rode his one hundredth winner of the season at Ipswich on Thursday where he won three of the seven races. Next Wednesday he will be at Sandown representing Queensland in the National Apprentice Series.

He has a three week riding stint in Singapore, which he earned as winner of the Queensland Media Association’s Young Rider of the Year last year, on hold while he looks to hold onto his long tome lead in the Brisbane Jockey’s Premiership.

Orman’s talent and the demeanour are huge assets and, importantly, they are complemented by a solid work ethic. Here again, Orman shines.

The workload he accepts is extremely challenging and the fact that he is able to take so many rides and maintain the strike rate he does is testament to the way he looks after himself physically. It has been noted on more than one occasion that, when doing post-race winning interviews on television, Orman is one of the few that is able to do so without having to catch his breath. Such is his level of race fitness.

Willingness to learn? Another big tick!

His disciplinary record is also very good. He seldom falls foul of the stewards who, with good reason of course, have been known to put an up-and-coming apprentice firmly back in his place should he step out of line.

When you consider all of the above it is apparent just how far Orman has come since he rode his first city winner in his first ride in town at the start of July 2014.

That win came aboard Iniquity which was trained by Orman’s mother Caroline Allardyce. When Orman rode his treble on Thursday one of his winners was for the Allardyce owned and trained Carda Mojo and the continued influence of that strong, supportive family presence in his life (his father is a former jockey) has clearly played a significant role in Orman’s progress.

They keep his feet on the ground.

All credit to the young man for not only what he has achieved so far but the manner in which he has gone about rising through the ranks.

Staying humble on the back of early success is not always easy to do, as many have found to their ultimate cost, but Orman has mastered that as surely as he has risen to the various challenges of his profession.

Of course Jimmy Orman, the apprentice jockey, is still very much a work in progress, but, from a starting point at his home base in Gatton, he has spread his wings to a point where he is already an absolute credit to racing in general and to racing in Queensland in particular.

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