Just over six months ago, Scone-based apprentice Braith Nock headed to Sydney on a three month loan to trainer Peter Snowden with little more than a desire to improve his riding.
The stint proved so successful, he readjusted his goals and set his sights on claiming the Sydney junior riders’ crown, a title he has now sewn up with three weeks of the 2024-25 season still remaining.
A double at Canterbury on Wednesday took Nock to 38 metropolitan wins this term, 14 clear of nearest rival Molly Bourke, catapulting him into ninth place on the Sydney jockeys’ premiership.
He has booted home 107 state-wide, second only to Aaron Bullock (114) and still a rough chance of capturing NSW riding honours.
At Randwick on Saturday, an early scratching has reduced his full book to nine but he will still be sporting silks for the likes of Ciaron Maher, the Hayes brothers and Annabel and Rob Archibald.
Nock admits he sometimes has to pinch himself.
“It has been a little bit surreal,” Nock said.
“But it’s good to get the opportunities and make the most of them.”
Nock’s book includes distance specialist Katsu for Lindsay Park in The Agency Real Estate Handicap (1000m).
A five-time winner over the journey, Katsu will lump 64kg after the apprentice’s two-kilo claim, a weight rarely seen in town in the modern day.
However, the young rider has taken heart from last weekend’s performance by the Joe Pride-trained Storm The Ramparts, who carried 62.5kg to victory at Rosehill, and said Katsu’s task is far from impossible over the short course journey.
“It’s only ever won over 1000 and as Joe Pride says, weight shouldn’t matter unless it’s over 1400 (or further),” he said.
“As long as they go quick and it’s not a sit and sprint which over 1000 metres, they generally do.”
His four rides for the powerful Maher operation include It’s A Knockout in the TAB Handicap (1400m), Nock confident she can go on with the job after he partnered the mare to a dominant win last month.
“She has only got to run up to that and I’m sure she is going to take improvement off the first-up run. She really came up underneath me that day,” he said.
Despite his current vein of form and the rigors of traversing the state from Scone, Nock isn’t planning a permanent move to Sydney just yet.
He enjoys the quieter lifestyle the Hunter offers and is content to put in the hard yards.
“There is definitely lots of travelling but if there are a couple of days of racing in the same area I try to stay down so I’m not back and forth so much,” he said.
“I dare say at the end of the season I might take a week or two off.
“I know I have a bit of momentum but hopefully I’ve got the connections to help me get straight back into it.”
