At the start of the month more than a few eyebrows were raised when the name R Fradd appeared in the jockey line-up at the Rockhampton meeting on November 5.
There were a couple of reasons why the high profile, highly accomplished, highly competitive metropolitan jockey made the trip north … as Fradd was happy to explain.
“Firstly, Ryan Wiggins asked me if I wanted to take his rides up there because he is out with injury,” said Fradd. “He asked if I wanted to go, and I don’t mind going to Rocky. On that day I could have gone to the Sunny Coast for a couple of rides, or I could go up to Rocky for what turned out to be eight rides instead.
“The Sunny Coast is a three hour drive and, although the return trip is quicker, I probably got home quicker from Rocky than I would have from the Sunny Coast, so it wasn’t that difficult a decision to make in itself.”
But there was also a second, and perhaps more telling, scenario which had reason to impact on Fradd’s decision to make the trip to Rockhampton, a decision he might not even have considered in the busy season’s gone by.
“It is really hard to get rides in Brisbane at the moment,’ acknowledged Fradd. “It doesn’t help that they race a lot at Eagle Farm now because the noms there generally are small. You get maybe eight runners and half of the rides are filled by apprentices because trainers want to claim.
“I don’t really have a big stable behind me in town. Toby and Trent Edmonds have always supported me … and they still do which I really appreciate … but they did go a bit quiet, not having a lot of runners in town, for a while. They’ll be back and I’m grateful that they are still supporting me. They are still my go-to stable.
“Robert Heathcote has got his apprentice. Tony Gollan has a lot of jockeys available to him. Steve O’Dea has a lot of jockeys riding for him … so it is very hard, particularly again with all of the three kilo claimers going around … to get the type of rides you want in town. I think that is what it has basically come down to … you have got to have a stable in Brisbane to do well.
“I decided that, whenever I can’t get decent rides there, I’ll go down to the coast or wherever I have to. I don’t mind. It doesn’t worry me.
“I do know my career is coming to an end. I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t have much time left … probably another year. I wouldn’t say I am easing myself out of it. I’m still quite happy to take a full book of good rides but, when the time comes to hang up my boots, I will!”
The degree of the lack of availability of good rides in town for Fradd in the early part of the season … which obviously has impacted on his results, at face value at least, can be drawn from the fact that, at the time of his Rockhampton trip, Fradd had ridden just three metropolitan winners in the first three months of the 2021/22 season.
That’s a far cry from Fradd’s statistics over the past five seasons in which he always finished in the top three in the Brisbane Jockey’s Premiership. In fact, on three of those occasions Fradd brought home more than sixty winners (with his best result of 69.5 winners coming in, 2019/2020, when his mounts earned $4.7 million in prize-money).
So, times have changed dramatically, but it is not as if Fradd had forgotten how to ride!
In his last fifty rides at that time of his Rockhampton visit, Fradd had a healthy strike-rate of eighteen percent, but the stark fact was that the rides, and the bulk of those results, were just not coming in town, so his winners flew well under the radar.
“It is what it is. I’m good with it. I’m still going … and I’m happy to keep going until I say ‘enough,’ said Fradd.
As indicated by all of the above, circumstances can change very quickly … but that change can also be for the better as well.
In the past two weekend metropolitan meetings in Brisbane, Fradd has ridden two winners, both for the Toby and Trent Edmonds training partnership … a clear indication that train is on the move again.
And just as doors close on occasions, they can open just as quickly.
If and when they do, there can be no doubt Fradd has all of the riding expertise and acumen to make the most of any opportunities that present themselves.
Clearly, Fradd’s record shows he is just too good a rider for the pendulum not to swing back his way, even if he is closer to the end of his career than the start of it.
Chances are there will be more of Fradd’s story to come.
The fat lady hasn’t sung yet!
