Nash Rawiller’s amazing autumn carnival run has propelled the jockey back into contention for another Sydney premiership.
When Rawiller returned from a Magic Millions day careless riding suspension in February he was languishing 20 winners behind Hugh Bowman.
But his autumn carnival to remember, which included seven Group One wins in five weeks, has reduced the deficit to just eight with three months of the season remaining.
The winner of the past two Sydney titles, Rawiller certainly hadn’t given up hope of retaining the premiership despite suspensions and lack of rides harming his chances earlier in the season.
“It’s something I would dearly love to win but I’ve got commitments elsewhere too, so if I do it it’s going to be a pretty amazing effort,” Rawiller said.
“It’s never left my mind. It’s still a bit of a goal of mine but we’ll just have to wait and see how things go.”
Rawiller’s commitments include riding Foxwedge in the King’s Stand Stakes in England in June.
Trainer Gai Waterhouse and Rawiller dominated the autumn racing and ended the Sydney carnival on Saturday with a feature race treble including a Group One double with More Joyous in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Pierro in the Champagne Stakes.
For Rawiller it was without a doubt the best carnival of his career and he was a runaway winner of the George Moore Golden Whip award for the carnival’s leading rider.
“It’s just been unbelievable and to finish it off like that has me a bit lost for words,” Rawiller said.
“Obviously I had the cattle and they were all favourites, but where I was struggling a bit (on Saturday morning) was that you were just sort of waiting for something to go wrong. And nothing has all carnival. Not one thing.
“You go back to the spring and there was about four of five things that just kept going wrong.
“This time just everything has gone perfectly.”
Rawiller’s Group One double on Saturday took his season tally to 11 including the Railway Stakes win on Atomic Force in New Zealand.
Ten of his Group Ones have come in 2012 with Descarado’s Caulfield Stakes his biggest spring victory.
Rawiller missed his chance in the Cox Plate when Descarado was scratched and suspension ruled him out of riding on both Melbourne Cup and VRC Oaks days.
The 37-year-old said the Doncaster on More Joyous and Golden Slipper on Pierro stood out as his carnival highlights.
“I’ve been fortunate to ride some really lovely horses but these two (More Joyous and Pierro), what they’ve been able to achieve this preparation is just unbelievable, Rawiller said.
