3 minute read
Top young jockey Harry Davies is looking forward to a stint at riding in Australia.
Davies, 19, has revealed he will team up with top Australian trainer Annabel Neasham in mid-November.
A rising star of the British weighing room, Davies, who completed his apprenticeship under the watchful eye of Andrew Balding at Kingsclere Stables, already has 170 winners to his name.
The now Newmarket-based teenage sensation has enjoyed profitable linkups with trainers Charlie Appleby, Charlie Fellowes and Simon and Ed Crisford, for whom he steered two-year-old filly Arabian Dusk to triumph for a first group race victory in the Group 2 Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes in July. Davies enjoyed further group success when partnering Simon and Ed Crisford's Coto De Caza in the Group 3 Cornwallis Stakes on Newmarket's Rowley Mile earlier in the month.
Speaking on Sky Sports Racing before riding at Newcastle on Tuesday evening, Davies said: "I'm going to go to Australia around mid-November to hopefully get some experience and come back a better jockey."
Davies will link up with Australian powerhouse Annabel Neasham at her base in Warwick Farm, an opportunity he is relishing.
He added: "I'm going to be managed by Zac Lloyd's agent, and I'll be riding out for Annabel Neasham who will be helping me out with all the track work. It will be good for timings and the way they race out there is completely different to how we do over here so hopefully, that will broaden my horizons.
"I know Annabel has a really powerful team out there and has some great horses. It's going to be exciting to be a part of that team. I've always wanted to go to Australia, I half got the opportunity to go when I was just losing my claim, but I was too young to get the visa that I wanted so I had to stick around."
"The racing out there is all off-pace and pretty similar to America with more variations of tracks probably. There are some very good jockeys to look up to and learn off. I understand I'm still pretty green so hopefully, I can learn plenty!"
Davies is not the only rising star of the weighing room who will be heading to Australia for the winter, with his housemate Billy 'The Kid' Loughnane another young jockey looking to build the momentum behind his burgeoning career.
Last year's British flat racing Champion Apprentice enjoyed a first victory at Royal Ascot when partnering the Brian Meehan-trained Rashabar to a shock 80/1 triumph in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes.