THE SUNDAY STORY: CHRIS DELL PUTS HIMSELF IN THE GAME

By Darren Winningham | Sunday, June 5, 2016

Racing is not all about the big name players. While they steal the headlines, others are silently chipping away at building their careers. Many are doing so against the odds while retaining a quiet optimism that they are indeed working towards a breakthrough moment. Everybody has a tale to tell. This is Chris Dell’s story.

“I answer to many names,” said Chris Dell, but whether you call him ‘Dellboy’ or ‘Ding Dong Dell’ or Chris ‘Delltori,’... in reference to superstar Frankie Dettori ... as nicknamed by his close mates in New Zealand, talking to Chris Dell remains an interesting exercise.

When Dell arrived in Brisbane recently he had ninety six New Zealand winners behind his name ... that’s “ninety five flat winners and one over the hurdles,” he explained.

In mid-March he added another win to that total when saluting aboard Mishani El Lobo at the Sunshine Coast, but he then had to patient for a month as he looked to establish himself and find more opportunities.

The suddenly the winners came in a rush. Moss Harry (at Doomben), Aassak (at Ipswich) and Run ‘N’ Song gave Dell three winners in three successive meetings.

Three rides later, on April 27 at the Gold Coast, Dell reached the magical one hundred flat race career winners when Friendly Dragon, trained by Les Ross who had also given Dell that first winner at the Sunshine Coast, saluted to give the rider a moment to savour.

The broadness of Dell’s smile post-race said it all.

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Dell’s parents didn’t want him to be a jockey ... but he did ride as an amateur jockey whilst he was still at school completing two successful years in the saddle.

At the young age of 17 Dell weighed around 57kg.

“My step forward in racing from then was to be a jumps jockey,” Dell said. “I was apprenticed to my father Kevin Dell. As dad only had five or six in work it allowed me to freelance around Pukekohe”.

But his riding career advanced from there and he commencing his apprenticeship as a mature aged apprentice at 19 years of age in New Zealand.

In 2012 Dell was John Sargent’s claiming rider when the stable broke the New Zealand record for number of winners in a season, saluting 111 times, and it is therefore not surprising that Dell attributes his early success as a rider to this association with the Sargent stable.

Dell ended the 2012 season as the leading north island rider (with 37 winners) in New Zealand and won a scholarship to come to Australia and work with Chris Waller.

“This was a major change in spectrum for me, obviously working with my dad with five or six horses and freelancing around south Auckland is a bit different going to Sydney and working with Chris Waller”.

There was to be no easy transition. In fact, after a short three weeks, Dell returned home to New Zealand.

Reflecting on that decision Dell candidly explained, “I had always lived at home and was thrown in the deep end and just didn’t handle it”.

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Then, in 2014, while in the process of making plans to come to Brisbane, Dell suffered a horrendous fall whilst riding trials at Ruakaka after a horse broke down.

He was placed in an induced coma and spent time recovering in Auckland Hospital.

“I woke up singing a Nicki Manaj song ‘Anaconda.’ That made me famous. I am a fan of Nicki Minaj, you got to like any woman that can rap”.

Dell might have made light of the episode but his injuries were severe enough for New Zealand racing officials to give Dell a mandatory six months ‘no ride’ embargo.

Dell recalls “having to pass neuro-psych tests and get assessed by doctor after doctor”.

“I made something of a miraculous recovery. I was in a coma for ten days and in hospital for twenty-six days and I was out of rehab in four days as I convinced them that I was back to normal.”

“I broke two records at the recovery and rehabilitation centre” and from that point on he was focussed on getting back his fitness and agility to return to racing.

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Dell was extremely motivated to return to the saddle and set his own personal goals to achieve this ... and those plans included a move to Brisbane.

“Prior to my fall in 2014 I was always coming to Brisbane and was due to be here last winter. I think Brisbane is an amazing place in itself and the stake money is huge compared to New Zealand”.

Dell has settled well in Brisbane where he is indentured to David Murphy.

“I feel that I have been very lucky to be given this opportunity,” said Dell. “David Murphy is a very good boss and a good rider in the past and he offers me great advice.”

Dell is allowed to ride freelance by Murphy and is making the most of the opportunity by riding work for the likes of Robert Heathcote, Les Ross, Bruce Brown, Bryan Dias, Chris Munce and Lawrie Mayfield-Smith. (It was Mayfield-Smith who provided Dell with his first metropolitan winner in Brisbane on Wednesday 13 April at Doomben on Moss Harry).

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Dell prides himself on his fitness and his high work ethic. He prefers not to waste and sets himself high standards of physical discipline ... like “running around the streets of Hendra rather than sit in a bath and sweat.

Dell concedes that, “after the fall I had it is hard on my brain to just sweat and sweat and sweat, so I would rather do things nicely to my body, so that I am in it for the long haul not just for a short period.

“I need to physically go out and do something rather than sitting in a bath and sweating where my weight will go up down, up down, I try and do things properly rather than take shortcuts.”

Dell has consulted nutritionists and uses his self-discipline to manage his weight. Currently Dell is able to ride around 52.5kg comfortably since moving to Brisbane.

He happily says that he is “Group 1 placed in New Zealand” and is always looking for ways to improve himself and his riding technique which is why he keeps an eye on his New Zealand compatriot James McDonald who he considers to be, “probably the best jockey in Australasia.”

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Dell acknowledges that he is “a master talker. You will always hear me before you see me” ... but he really wants his riding to do the talking.

At this stage Dell is currently completing a three month loan with David Murphy and then will still have two months to go on his apprenticeship in New Zealand.

That five month period will end in the middle of August when Dell will, in his words, "become a big, bad senior rider" quite prepared to travel to more provincial meetings seeking winners and opportunities.

He will have to make a big decision at that time as to just where those opportunities will serve him best, but his main preference and the focus of his determination at tis stage is to forge his career in Queensland.

Dell has overcome adversity before and clearly, both mentally and physically, he is up for this new challenge and ready to latch on to each and every opportunity that might come his way.

He knows it will be a tough slog but, at twenty three years of age and with time on his side he has put himself in the game.

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