Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson are once again our champion trainers, the injured Lily Sutherland is the leading apprentice for the second year in a row and then there’s the big one, the new one.
Champion jockey: Gryllsy.
He may only be 35 but Craig Grylls has been part of punters’ lives for so long he can go by his singular nickname.
Today is the realisation of a dream as he becomes the premiership winner, leading former two-time champion Michael McNab by 54 wins heading into today’s meeting.
A margin that size means Gryllsy had the premiership sewn up months ago when the TAB paid out on the result.
But it will not be until they run the last race just after 4pm today that he officially becomes the champ, New Zealand’s premiership-winning jockey.
“It still hasn’t really sunk in,” he says.
“I know it has been coming and that I was going to win but tomorrow [Wednesday] makes it official.
“It is something to be proud of, and I am, but I haven’t celebrated it yet.”
Racing’s relentless calendar leaves little time for celebration and like many who have won the title before him Grylls’ achievement will be most publicly acknowledged at the Horse of the Year awards in Hamilton on September 7.
It will be a popular award.
Grylls has travelled so far and wide and ridden for so many trainers and owners that it seems everybody either knows him or feels like they know him.
With a big smile for a little man, he is no-fuss on and off the track, busy enough to keep his horses handy when needed, so often the recipe for success in modern racing, particularly on the smaller circuits.
“It has obviously been a great season,” he says.
“Winning the NZ Oaks on Leica Lucy meant a lot to me because of the pressure and what it meant to Robbie [Patterson, trainer and close friend] and the owners.
“And winning the $1 million Aotearoa Classic on Orchestral on Karaka Millions night was also very special.”
Besides being the most successful jockey this season, Grylls has also been the busiest and if all five of his engaged rides start today it will take him to 800 for the season, after starting the day on a new New Zealand record of $6,068,577 in stakes.
“I enjoy being busy but I had a little break recently. Just before that I was getting a little tired but I feel a lot better now,” he tells the Herald.
“Winter racing, when it is on the heavy tracks, is definitely harder on the body but I am feeling good now and looking forward to the new season.”
The son of a jockey (Gary) and with a sister jockey in Bridget, Craig Grylls says today’s achievement may have been two decades in the making. However, as tends to be the case with racing, life is about looking forward to the next meeting, the next winner, rather than pats on the back.
“We haven’t talked about it too much but I know they [family] are proud of me and to be honest, so am I,” he says.
“But you never want to stop riding winners and next season starts the day after tomorrow.”
That promises to be even more challenging as the jockeys’ rooms, particularly in the north, will be their deepest in possibly two decades as Opie Bosson and Matt Cameron return, while Matt Cartwright is coming back from Australia.
“It will be strong and I like that. I actually think it is easier to ride in fields full of good jockeys and better for the punters.”
As for today and his best chance of adding to his 140 wins and putting an exclamation mark on his dream season?
“All of mine have chances and are actually pretty even but I am on a few for Te Akau and that is always a big help.”
Regardless of who wins today, Grylls will finally be where he has always wanted and now deserves to be.
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.
