BULLOCK GOES BANG - BUT THE AUSTRALIAN JOCKEY'S PREMIERSHIP IS STILL WIDE OPEN

By Graham Potter | Friday, July 28, 2023

Keeping up with the score between Aaron Bullock and Jimmy Orman in their exhilarating chase for the 2022/23 Australian Jockey’s Premiership is almost as full-time job, as shown by the progressive score chart this week.

Bullock 193.5 wins. Orman 191 (on Monday)

Bullock 194.5 – Orman 193 (Tuesday)

On Wednesday the lead changed hands

Orman 196 – Bullock 194.5 (Wednesday)

Orman 197 – Bullock 194.5 (Thursday)

On Friday the lead changed hands again.

Bullock 199.5 – Orman 199 (Friday)

Have a look at that last turnaround again.

It shows Bullock landing no less than five winners on the Tamworth card, three of them on very short-priced favourites. That haul would have beaten off a lesser challenger than Orman, but Queensland’s top rider landed a double of his own at Ipswich, bookending that meeting, to stay within touching distance of the crown.

That chart shows that these two highly competent and incredibly motivated riders have ridden fourteen winners between them in the last five days.

So, going into the final weekend of the season, Bullock has a mere half-a-win lead over Orman with both riders now just one win away from the magical, two hundred winners for the season mark.

A possibility that remains very much in play is that this super two-way battle down the home straight could be decided by half-a-win. Imagine that ... going down to the wire and finishing in a grand photo-finish. That would be something!

But, with only three days left, as you can see, the final stages of this Premiership can only be assessed on a day-by-day, stride for stride, punch for punch basis.

On Saturday Bullock is riding at Newcastle where he currently has six rides on the eight-race card. Orman has eight rides out of the nine races at Doomben ... and then he hightails it out of there to take up three rides at the night meeting at Toowoomba, some 150km away.

That means the score-keeper won’t be able to knock off until the result of Toowoomba’s last race ... which jumps at 9.23pm ... has been given the ‘All Clear’

And, of course, that is not the end of it.

Orman will one last throw of the dice at the Sunshine Coast meeting on Sunday while Bullock has rides on both Sunday and Monday at Muswellbrook and Wellington respectively.

It is going to be a fascinating watch!

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