Jockey Michael Walker has good reason for hoping his goal to ride 100 winners this season can be realised at Flemington on Saturday.
Walker is within sight of the century and is keen to achieve it this weekend so he can celebrate it with his family.
Spillway, Michael Walker
Walker’s children, son Kase and daughter Layla, live in New Zealand but will be in Melbourne for the jockey’s 31st birthday.
“I wanted to set something realistic that with my body, my age and my weight I thought I could give a good nudge and 100 winners is what I looked at,” Walker said.
“For me personally, I’ll take a lot of satisfaction out of it, if and when I get it.”
With 98 winners overall for the 2014/15 season, Walker also sits fourth on the Melbourne jockeys’ premiership with 31 city victories, 10 behind leader Craig Williams.
He has two rides at Flemington on Saturday, More Than Most in the Anzac Day Stakes and Mihany in the Hugo Throssell VC Handicap, both for the David Hayes and Tom Dabernig training partnership.
Walker said it had been difficult to cement a place in Melbourne’s competitive riding ranks and was thankful for the support of trainers like Hayes and Dabernig who had helped him toward his season goal.
It was the Lindsay Park operation that provided him with his first Melbourne Group One winner when Spillway took out the Australian Cup last month.
“There’s amazing jockeys in Sydney but most are linked with a stable,” Walker said.
“Here, most people are freelance and it’s really hard to get a go, so I’ll take a lot of satisfaction out of achieving my goal.”
Walker has done a tremendous job to re-establish his riding career following a pig hunting accident in New Zealand in 2008 which almost claimed his life.
