He has been the coming apprentice in Queensland for some time now and Kyle Wilson-Taylor’s performance at his first Metropolitan meeting simply franked his already burgeoning reputation.
To be fair, the young rider is going to have to face more testing conditions than he did on his Metropolitan debut at the Gold Coast where race-fields were decimated by scratchings and the small fields competed on a heavy 10 surface which again narrowed down the number of real contenders, but still, for Wilson-Taylor to come back with two winners on the day rates as a notable achievement.
Taking on bigger fields and the traffic problems they can create and riding against far more seasoned riders on tracks where every runner will have its chance, will all be part of Wilson-Taylor’s riding education moving forward, but for now there is little to fault in his form.
Wilson-Taylor’s career path forward needs to be well-managed if it is to be as effective as it can be and there can be no doubt that Wilson-Taylor is in good hands in that regard as he is attached to the Lindsay Hatch stable.
Hatch played an enormous part in the development of Baylee Nothdurft when he was an apprentice and, of course, it is now a piece of history that Nothdurft put the grounding the Hatch stable gave him to maximum use when he moved to the city, to trainer Tony Gollan, and went on to emulate Michael Rodd and Zac Purton by winning the Brisbane Jockey’s Premiership while still an apprentice.
With Lindsay Hatch, Wilson-Taylor will not be getting head of himself.
Hatch exhibited that tight rein recently when he ‘pulled’ Wilson-Taylor off two proposed rides for Tony Gollan at Eagle Farm last week referencing an ‘attitude check’ as a reason for delaying Wilson-Taylor’s launch onto the big stage, qualifying that by reportedly saying, “He’s a good kid … he’s learning from his mistakes.”
With that reminder in the bank, Hatch gave Wilson-Taylor the all-clear for the Gold Coast meeting where he won on the Stuart Kendrick trained Fierce Warrior in his first Metropolitan ride.
That was more or less and armchair ride … whereas Wilson Taylor’s second win on the day, aboard the Chris Anderson trained Reality, came in a hard-fought stride for stride battle with Kingscote with Wilson Taylor only forcing his mount up in the final strides.
In some sense that race arguably mirrored the future of the riding ranks in Brisbane as Wilson-Taylor went head-to-head in that finish with fellow apprentice Justin Huxtable.
Huxtable is currently a runaway leader in the Brisbane Apprentice Jockey’s Premiership while Wilson-Taylor sits second behind Justin Stanley on the Queensland Provincial Jockey’s Premiership.
These two riders are in different phases of their respective careers at this stage but, sooner or later, they will be pitted against each other again … as they were in such a spirited fashion at the Gold Coast … on a more regular basis where they will add another level of contribution to the riding ranks in South East Queensland, where racing will be all the better for their presence.
