THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN: DAMIAN BROWNE ON INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENT IN SINGAPORE

By Graham Potter | Saturday, June 3, 2017

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.

Sunshine Coast’s favourite racing son, champion jockey Damian Browne, will be missing in action at Corbould Park on Sunday ... but don’t be concerned.

His absence has nothing to do with a fall he had at the track at a recent meeting but all to do with an international assignment in Singapore where he has got the call up to ride the Cliff Brown trained Laughing Gravy in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup meeting at Kranji this Sunday.

Browne will thus be looking for another international success to add to his most famous victory which came aboard the Queensland champion Buffering in the Dubai and, as always, his local following will be watching the outcome with keen interest.

Back home Browne has a battle on his hands trying to hold on to the Sunshine Coast Jockey’s Premiership title which he has made his own in recent years.

Currently he holds down second spot in the Premiership behind the all-conquering Jeff Lloyd but he is still close enough in the tally to be able to make a well-timed surge, as he does so often on the track, to clinch a narrow victory.

Strangely enough, while Browne is having a tougher time competition wise on the local front, he is having one of his best seasons in the Brisbane Premiership where he sits in fifth place. At the stage of his career, where he is economical with his number of rides, Browne’s position on the Brisbane ladder underlines his class as, going into last Saturday, he had worked himself into that position from only 198 rides.

Every rider above him has more than 325 starts behind their names with Jeff Lloyd, the runaway leader out front, having had no less than 540 starts in Brisbane for the season so far.

Credit Lloyd for his zest for action and the ability to cope with that workload. Credit Browne for settling at his own pace.

As jockeys usually say about their horses, just let them be where they are comfortable ... and, although following different strategies, both Lloyd and Browne seem to be working on that basis and doing it well within themselves.

Browne has stated on more than one occasion that he dislikes travel ... so is there perhaps a tip in there somewhere given he is hopping on a plane to Singapore?

Or have the wise already banked their money by following Browne at last Friday's meeting at the Sunshine Coast where he powered home four winners as he made up time in advance, in a manner of speaking, to offset his absence on Sunday.

Time will tell!

More articles