Craig Grylls the big cat of the jockeys’ ranks as rich carnivals loom

One Bold Cat and Craig Grylls (yellow and black) stormed home to win the Marton Cup last start. Photo / Peter Rubery

Jockey of the moment Craig Grylls has every reason to be confident heading into tomorrow’s $150,000 Totara Lodge Trentham Stakes with One Bold Cat.

The premiership winner knows he is in the best form of his career, and he thinks One Bold Cat is getting back to his.

Grylls heads into the weekend 37 wins clear of Samantha Collett in the jockeys’ premiership and is now unbackable to defend the title he won for the first time last season.

He is riding a winner every 4.85 rides, compared with his strike rate of 5.67 last term, and his rides have amassed more than $3.4 million, even though our richest race days are yet to come.

His summer form has been so dominant that he allowed himself to take last week off race-riding to freshen up for the huge carnivals ahead.

“I needed it and feel a lot better for it, so I am excited for the next few months,” he told the Herald.

“I am getting on a lot of good horses, but also feel like I am riding well. I’m enjoying it.”

Grylls has a superb strike rate with good friend and trainer Robbie Patterson, many of whose horses make up Grylls’ book at Trentham tomorrow, including One Bold Cat.

He looks value at $6 in the Trentham Stakes because, while he has the 58kg topweight and barrier 14, he is better off under the set weights and penalties than when he beat many of these rivals in the Marton Cup at Trentham last start.

A prime example is Freddie Time, whom the TAB bookies opened favourite.

When they met in the Marton Cup, One Bold Cat carried 59kg, 6kg more than Freddie Time, and beat him into third. Tomorrow, One Bold Cat carries 58kg and Freddie Time lumps 55kg, so the topweight is actually 3kg better off.

“I can’t see any reason he shouldn’t win again,” says Grylls.

“I know it isn’t that easy in these big races, but he is a Group 1 winner who won a very similar race on this track last time, and I think he is getting back to his best form.

“And he has the advantage that, if the rain forecast does come, he can handle a wet track too.”

Tomorrow’s race is the last major lead-up to the Wellington Cup on January 31, so it will have a huge impact on that market.

Grylls has a strong book of rides tomorrow, but Wild At Heart in Race 1 is extra special to him.

“I actually have a share in her and race her with some of my close friends, including harness racing trainer Dylan Ferguson, who I have shares in horses with.

“I have had shares in a few gallopers before, but this is the first one to win a race, and it was a great feeling.

“She is a nice mare, so I am hoping she can do it again.”


Grylls gives good chances to topweights The Big Picture (R3, No 1) and Sir Bruce (R4, No 1) while he likes the fact Crackercol (R5, No 3) is returning to Trentham.

“He was going well in the Taupō Cup last start when he got pushed back at the wrong time, but I think getting back to the big Trentham track will really suit him.”

He partners impressive filly The Dirty Dee in the $200,000 NZB Desert Gold Stakes, a race stacked with promising newcomers up against the more black-type-established Tajana.

“The Dirty Dee goes pretty well and she can definitely be a threat.”

Tomorrow’s centrepiece is the $500,000 Harcourts Thorndon Mile. No matter how well Grylls is riding, he has his work cut out on Belles Beau in what will a toughest assignment against Legarto and Queen Zou.

“But Belles Fate [a full-brother to Belles Beau] has a chance in the last race, even though it is a good field for that grade.”

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.