Chad Ormsby made a late call to ride his own horse Kirrawee (NZ) (Vanbrugh) in the Lest We Forget 1600 at Matamata on Thursday and that decision proved a winning one for the former top hoop.
The former Group One-winning jockey stepped away from full-time riding in 2012, but briefly returned in the 2020/21 season, guiding home a further 10 winners during this period.
Ormsby hasn’t ridden on raceday since Boxing Day in 2020, turning his complete focus to his business Riverrock Farm, which specialises in training, pre-training, young horse education and Ready To Run Sales preparation, all of which he has found success in, including winning the Gr.1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m) with Pulchritudinous.
Since that triumph last year, Ormsby has continued to build his racing team, with Kirrawee entering his care initially for re-training purposes but now has had three starts for the Matamata horseman. The son of Vanbrugh didn’t have conditions to suit in another race on Thursday’s card, persuading Ormsby to take the reins in the highweight event.
After jumping well from the inside draw, Ormsby eased Kirrawee out of the early contest for the lead, which was briefly held by Cuban Revolution (NZ) (U S Navy Flag) before Vadasha (NZ) (Vadamos) pulled her way to the front. Ormsby found the back of race-favourite Romanin (NZ) (Eminent) at the 600m and stalked him into the home turn, and after getting into the clear, Kirrawee powered away and coasted to the line to score by nearly four lengths.
“This horse drew badly in the three-year-old only race and also couldn’t get a suitable rider there, purely because he can be a difficult ride and he needs a well-seasoned jockey to gel with him,” Ormsby said.
“The option was to put him in the highweight, and after he drew one in race one, it tipped the scales a bit and I thought I’d better ride him myself. It wasn’t at all what I’d planned to do, to pull the silks back on, but it worked out well.
“He’s not the easiest to ride as I’ve witnessed for myself today, but he’s still learning and there is a lot of potential there. Once the penny drops, I think you’ll see him go through the grades.
“He came to us as a bit of a problem child, he was destined to go to another stable but through various reasons he’s stayed and we’re now reaping the rewards.”
Ormsby also partnered Catherine Cameron’s Raajoices (NZ) (Iffraaj) to third in the other highweight contest for Rating 65 gallopers but said that it won’t be a regular occurrence for him through the winter.
“I had a bit of a stint (riding) just after COVID, but I’m enjoying what I’m doing with our business at home and the idea of riding again has never really resurfaced, there wasn’t really an itch to scratch,” he said.
“I’m not intentionally looking to continue riding in the highweights, but potentially if there was a highweight that suited one of my horses as similar to today, the opportunity to ride may come up later.
“But being out there today was nice, it’s helpful with fast horses but even just going back to the jockeys room and seeing some of the older jockeys that I rode with all those years ago, it was nice to have that camaraderie again. “I definitely copped a bit of stick from the boys.”