Racing: Riddell handles the best jockeys in Australia with aplomb

The intensity that surrounded Jonathan Riddell in Sydney last week was there for all to see.

Probably the loneliest feeling in the world for a jockey is sitting in a foreign jockeys' room, hunger and thirst relentlessly plucking at the body, and no lead-up ride to a group one race.

Having something to occupy your mind, like a ride before Saturday's A$500,000 Rosehill Guineas, would have been a wonderful panacea for Riddell.

Instead he sat in the Rosehill jockeys' room with nothing to keep him company but the crushing pressure of riding the favourite with 12 of the world's best jockeys gunning for him.

He hadn't ridden in Sydney before - he had won a Crisp Steeplechase in Melbourne in 2002 on Chibuku.

Perhaps then there was no great surprise in Riddell's response when asked what a thrill it must have been to win the Rosehill Guineas on Jimmy Choux.

"Relief really.

"They [the connections] didn't have to bring me over here to ride him.

"To pay back that sort of loyalty is wonderful."

But it hadn't been easy.

Riddell admitted the team had sat around Sydney all week trying to pick a fault in Jimmy Choux.

That they were unable to almost made the pressure greater.

"I've been watching the New Zealand horses come over and get beaten and they're good horses. That can make you nervous."

There is no great surprise either in Riddell's admission that the waiting has been so tough on his body he wouldn't be riding but for Jimmy Choux.

"It's not like being Glen Boss and being able to pick up the ride on a Derby favourite. I've only got one champion and this bloke is it."

The tough road Riddell has trod to get to the top against the odds shows in his every response.

Asked on Saturday if the A$1.5 million AJC Derby was definitely Jimmy Choux's next race and if the 2400m would again suit him, Riddell said: "It's not for me to speak on behalf of the owners about their horse".

What this high-quality horseman has been through does not allow room to assume anything.

How tough it is to complete the New Zealand Derby-Australian Derby double is emphasised by the fact Bonecrusher, in 1986, was the last to achieve it.