Perth apprentice jockey Luke Campbell is eyeing future Saturday success after claiming riding honours at his first Saturday in town at Ascot on Saturday.
Campbell rode the first two winners of the day before taking out the fifth event aboard Capital Flight.
It completed a dream day given the Coreen Maynard-trained Capital Flight was the horse his debut Saturday appearance was geared around.
Campbell rode Capital Flight to his first three wins but had to forfeit the ride to Brandon Louis when he won at Belmont in July at his last start before a spell as Campbell was not qualified to ride in the city on a Saturday.
Maynard was happy to hold back Capital Flight’s return until Campbell was given clearance to ride on Saturdays, which came last week.
“I can’t thank the Maynards enough, and everyone for waiting for me to ride this horse,” he said.
“As a young kid all I have ever wanted to do is be a jockey and now I am here and to ride a treble on my first Saturday is an unbelievable feeling.”
Maynard said Campbell had been central to the success of Capital Flight, who has now won five of eight starts, and she had been closely following his career in preparation for the son of City Place’s return.
“Every day we were counting down those wins of his and saying, ‘he’s not ready yet’,” Maynard said.
“It has timed out perfectly this preparation. Last week he was still not eligible but when he won the three (races) last week it was all aboard and we said, ‘yep, you have got that ride’.”
Campbell’s three winners all came for different stables, starting with the Daniel and Ben Pearce-trained Acromantula, who was a dominant two-length winner over the Shaun Mcgruddy-ridden Beads in the opening event.
He followed that up with a win aboard the Dan Morton-trained Rock My Way, who won a race in which Ben Melham, Willie Pike and Jamie Kah rode the next three horses over the line.
“To do this with so many big-name jockeys here is a thrill,” he said.
“I’m pumped. What a feeling.”