THERE are many milestones in the careers of jockeys – your first ride as an apprentice, your first winner, then your first cup of any kind.
Then come the big ones.
Your first $1 million winner, your first Group 1 and your first ginormous cup.
And like any jockey, Swan Hill’s Harry Coffey could rattle them all off for you, right up to the 2024 Caulfield Cup.
But on Sunday he achieved another little moment in country racing lore – and didn’t even realise it until he was asked.
Because when he landed the first at Echuca on Sunday, the 29-year-old hoop became the winningest jockey on the track this season.
It certainly brought a wry smile to his face, because he had a ride in nine of the 10 races run there – the $27,000 Kennaugh’s Garden Centre Plate over 1200m was his only win for the day – making it a tough day at the office from that point on, despite also having three rides for his father Austy.
The win on Home Zone – with its standout white blaze – for the Hayes stable at Euroa gave him his sixth winner at the track and as Echuca has just one meeting left this season – its Winter Blues at the Races on July 25 – there is every chance he will finish as its most successful jockey.
“Just six is enough to have the most winners here,” Coffey grinned before jumping into the saddle for his last ride of the day.
“It’s not very many is it.”
But Echuca is far from Coffey’s most successful stamping ground.
This season Coffey has been king of Ballarat, with nine winners on the grass and another eight on its synthetic track.
On Bendigo’s grass he has racked up an even dozen winners and has another number six, this time at his home track at Swan Hill.
As far as the most winners for any trainer are concerned, he has ridden those – 19 of them – for the McEvoy stable.
All going towards his 85 winners, and counting, in the 2024/25 season and with a full month and a bit to go.
“I hadn’t been on this horse before today but clearly the experts and punters knew all about the three-year-old filly because she started a very firm favourite and paid just $2.40,” Coffey added.
“And she went very well and finished very strongly to break her maiden at her third start, and her second this prep after a second in her first start and a second first up this time in.
“So clearly was always going to be around the mark today.”
Coffey said his rides for the Swan Hill firm Coffey and Son didn’t go as well.
He said all three did not cope with the wetter track and found it hard going.
Fellow Swan Hill trainer Helen Burns also had a couple of runners on the day, and they didn’t do any better either even though one of them, The Last Judgement, had been a last start winner on the same track just three weeks ago.
