A VERY SPECIAL MOMENT AT ROCKY

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Even with victory secured by his mount Namazu in the $775 000 The Archer, jockey Ashley Butler was pretty reserved in terms of showing any real emotion after the Ricky Vale’s teams massive home-town victory.

“Obviously, it is by far the biggest race I’ve ever won. I’ve watched the replay over and over again. As far as my reaction straight after I had won and coming back to scale is concerned ... I don’t know if what had happened hadn’t sunk in yet ... but, watching the replay, I thought I looked a bit blasé about things. I wasn’t as excited as I would have expected to be,” acknowledged Butler.

But there was a grand moment of quiet elation, missed by many.

In the background, while they were getting things ready on the presentation stage, Butler’s daughter raced into the arms of The Archer winning jockey and they enjoyed a moment of a happy, blissful shared experience that clearly meant a great deal to Butler ... and there is a very deep explanation behind that.

That explanation traced all the way back to an incident in the aftermath of Butler’s first Archer win on Emerald Kingdom in 2022, when Butler was the victim of a king hit later in the evening which resulted in five fractures to his jaw, loss of teeth and the related massive face swelling.

“When my daughter saw me after the incident that happened after my first Archer win ... I was pretty much unrecognisable. A couple of times there she didn’t really recognise me after what had happened.

“So, for her to be there on Sunday for my second win ... and with her being a little bit older now, and to be able to take in what had actually happened with the win, it was really special.

“I would like to say that overall, I felt there was a lot bigger cheer squad there on Sunday then there was for my first Archer win. I’m not sure if that was because it was a local horse, a local trainer, a local rider, but, for some reason, even though I might have been a bit reserved, I could feel the atmosphere a lot more this time than I did last time.”

Butler wasn’t the only one keeping emotions on an even keel. Namazu’s trainer Ricky Vale also seemed pretty laid back after the race.

“Yeah, you don’t get much emotion out of Ricky,” said Butler. ‘After the race we shook hands and said thanks ... and that was sort of it. He’s not that sort of person to jump up and down and make a big deal out of it ... and neither am I.

“Ricky just takes it all in ... and he is a very smart trainer with a horse. He definitely knows what he is doing with them.

“I’ve got good people around me and trainers that support me. I’m very thankful for that.

“No, I didn’t go out and celebrate afterwards either,” said Butler.

“Namazu’s slot holder owns The Rocks down at Yeppoon and she was putting free dinks and that, but I had to ride the next day at Thangool (where Butler did ride a winner) and I knew if I had gone down there to The Rocks, there was probably a big chance of me not riding the next day ... so, I did the right thing.

“I went home and sat on the couch and had a bit of me time. I was in bed by seven-thirty.”

Right now, Butler has taken a week off. He is heading to Warrnambool to enjoy carnival there with friends.

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