HARRY Coffey admits he was pretty pleased with himself after turning in a huge run on New Zealand bred gelding Marcolt to win the $55,000 Ladbrokes Luther’s Luck over 1800m at Sandown Lakeside on Wednesday.
Not least because he had hauled himself out of bed in Swan Hill to ride in trials at Tatura that morning and then fought back the temptation to pack up and go home.
He had to, he said post-race, work hard to motivate himself to make the 215km trip to town, but it proved his best decision of the day.
It would have been hard to see a bigger smile on a winning jockey’s face on Wednesday, although the pragmatic Coffey suggested “you don’t see too many people frowning after they win”.
With January 31 the halfway mark of the racing season, Coffey has already amassed 45 winners between the city track and his usual country haunts and is on track to back up his debut 100-win season from 2021-22.
But still in pragmatic programming, the uber-successful Swan Hill based hoop was pretty confident there won’t be a 100-win season in 2022-23.
“I really put in the kilometres last season and rode a fair bit, especially through the winter, but because I choose to live in Swan Hill it means a lot of travel, and that takes it out of you,” Coffey said.
“If I try and keep that up I might run out of petrol – literally.
“The 100-win season was great, but it took a lot to get all the rides you need to achieve that and I just don’t think that will be happening this year.
“After the spring carnival all the big guns of the track tend to take a break, head for Surfer’s or go and ride in places like Hong Kong, but once the autumn carnival comes around they have almost all come back so you have to do a lot more to get the rides.”
While Coffey doesn’t plan detailed, long-term goals for the season, he does have one target always there in the back of his mind.
Ten per cent.
That’s the magic minimum number he says all the top riders base their careers on – keep above that and you will be doing OK.
Right now, Coffey is sitting on a strike rate of 14.8 per cent and he is pretty comfortable with that.
“All wins are hard to get, from actually securing the ride in a race to getting a horse that is capable of winning and that is in the mood to win on the day,” he said.
“Racehorses are no different to elite athletes, they need to be there mentally as well as physically, and as the jockey you need to work out very quickly where your horse is on that scale on the day.”
He said Marcolt was a classic example.
“He came out of the gate well but I pulled him straight back to the rear of the field, which is where I wanted to be. At the 600m mark, even though I was still well back, I was pretty sure I had the field covered.
“Patrick Payne had done a good job of picking the right race for the horse, and even though the pace had been pretty good, I was pretty sure we would get there. I could have pulled him out at the 600 and gone for it, but you have to be aware of the horse’s own thinking.
“I know Marcolt, and he is not necessarily the most ‘genuine’ horse going round so there was the risk he might start overthinking if we went from 600 out, so I just kept him ticking over and waited until we were straightened up and heading for home.”
When Coffey did pop the question, Marcolt immediately leapt into another gear and started taking huge strides as he swept down the centre of the track, blowing right by the frontrunners and managing to put clear air between himself and the field as they hit the line.
“You don’t need to throw everything at them at once, and this horse was one of the better ones in that field, and it’s always good to get a win,” Coffey said.
While Coffey does pick up a lot of late rides for the Payne stables, and has a strong relationship with high-profile stables such as Maher/Eustace, his Swan Hill base also means he is the go-to guy for dad Austy’s Swan Hill stables.
Track, trials, jump outs and races, he is the No.1 choice and he said he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Dad’s horses are going pretty well, and he has reduced the numbers he has in work, and I reckon going the better for it,” Coffey said.
“He is facing the same problems every industry seems to be right now – he can’t get staff. Can’t get people for trackwork and that makes training very tough, and I try to do as much as I can with him, but if we could get staff he could boost his numbers back up.
“He has horses such as Bannerton, who is doing pretty well in country cups, and he does a great job of picking the right races for all his horses, but in the past six months has brought the numbers down to what he can manage with the resources he has.”
Another reason Coffey is looking at the distances he covers each week is the condition of roads in regional and country Victoria.
He describes them as a “disgrace” and almost hit another pothole during the phone interview with The Guardian.
“At this time of the year, with harvest, the big grain trucks are on smaller roads all over the place, but this year, after all the rain and/or floods, our pretty bad roads are in really bad shape and that’s another risk you have to factor in, especially for the coming winter,” Coffey said.
“I love living up here and if that means fewer rides in town, and a fair bit of travel, then I am pretty happy I am getting the better part of the deal and having a good life in a great town, with my family.”
And that, Coffey thinks, beats 100 winners any day.
