Top gongs for Ollie, O’Brien
DAMIEN Oliver, Danny O’Brien and Nature Strip have been acclaimed as the stars of the 2019-20 racing season after Oliver claimed the Scobie Breasley Medal as Victoria’s premier jockey for the 11th time.
Beaten in the city premiership race by Craig Williams, Oliver collected the Breasley mantle after receiving 61 votes from Racing Victoria stewards to beat Dwayne Dunn (51) and Williams (43).
Oliver, 48, previously lifted the medal in 1999, 2001-04, 2014-15 and 2018-19, a measure of the champion rider’s stunning durability.
O’Brien, who has a satellite stable at Barwon Heads, won the Fred Hoysted Medal after a season littered with feature wins, imposing strike rate and imaginative training feats.
His elite triumphs involved Vow And Declare (Melbourne Cup), Russian Camelot (SA Derby) and Miami Bound (VRC Oaks), while his stable amassed 100 winners at a strike rate of 17.7 per cent.
Nature Strip, one of only three horses to snare multiple Group 1 races in Victoria last season, claimed the Victorian Racehorse of the Year with 62 votes to nudge out Cox Plate winner Lys Gracieux (57) and Vow And Declare (50).
With Moir Stakes and VRC Sprint Classic wins, Nature Strip delivered Chris Waller’s fourth straight win in the category after Winx’s three-peat.
Caulfield trainer Nick Ryan won the Colin Alderson Rising Star award, which is open to Victorian-based trainers 40 years and under with no more than seven racing seasons’ training experience.
Shane Jackson landed the Tommy Corrigan Medal for the second year in a row as leading jumps jockey in Victoria and South Australia, voted at each meeting by stewards.
Oliver and Jye McNeil, who won the overall Victorian premiership, shared the Victorian Jockeys’ Association most valuable jockey award, voted on by their peers.
SA apprentice Will Price won the VJA Rising Star Award, voted by peers, after riding 85 winners in 10 months. Price also claimed the Victorian apprentice premiership.
Michael Poy was the best young rider in the city notching 40 wins to claim the city apprentice premiership.
Lindsay Park’s team of David Hayes, Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig claimed the Metro trainers’ title for a second straight year, while Ciaron Maher and David Eustace took out the premiership.