Pires in box seat for title
DAVID Pires is set to snare his third jockeys’ premiership in succession to further emphasise his dominance of Tasmania’s riding ranks.
Despite being sidelined with a leg injury, Pires has this season’s title stitched up with four meetings remaining.
Pires has ridden 75 winners to hold an unbeatable lead over nearest rival Siggy Carr, on 49, and Melbourne-based fly-in rider Anthony Darmanin (42).
The former Victorian who relocated to Tasmania as an apprentice 16 years ago has matured into a consummate professional. With a strike rate this season of 26.3 per cent, he is one of the top 10 riders in Australia.
Pires’s winners have come from 285 rides, and he has ridden 78 placings, giving him a place strike rate of 52.63 per cent.
As with all riders, he longed to win a premiership and win a Hobart or Launceston cup, but in the past three years he has realised all of those dreams.
He won the Hobart and Launceston cups last season aboard Up Cups to join an elite group of riders to have accomplished the feat in the same season.
He almost did it again this season by winning the Hobart Cup aboard Count Da Vinci and the horse was a game second in the Launceston Cup.
Pires, 36, has a simple philosophy on how he has made it to the top.
“Work hard and be professional and good things will happen,” he said.
“Once I realised what I really wanted, I knuckled down to hard work and winning the last two premierships is the result and I’ve improved as a rider.”
Finding his way to the Brunton stable at Seven Mile Beach was clearly a defining career move.
The father-and-son training combination of David and Scott Brunton won six premierships together. For the past two seasons Scott has won the title on his own and he is on the verge of taking out his third title in his own right and snare a state training record along the way.
He only needs one winner from the last four meetings to break the state record of 88 that he shares with his father, set in the 2010-11 season.
He equalled the tally in Launceston last Sunday where he prepared Love Magic to score a win in a class four handicap over 1220m.
Pires was not part of the action in Launceston last Sunday. He is still recovering from a badly cut knee as a result of mishap in the barrier stalls in Devonport last Sunday week, but he expects to be back riding this Sunday.
Before teaming with the Bruntons, Pires was unsure of his future.
“Before making that commitment my career was at the crossroads and I was looking for alternatives,” he said. “But when I stopped to have a real good think about it I realised that Tasmania had everything I wanted, so I was at least clear on where I preferred to live.
“My personal life is solid with my partner, Kasi Boxall, and together we are raising a family, so all I needed was to sort out my professional life.
“Moving to the Bruntons’ stable was not only a major turning point in my career — it has changed my life.”
The greater percentage of Pires’s winners are derived from the stable and he also has been given the opportunity to partner some of their stock interstate including Lord Da Vinci, who gave him his second win at Moonee Valley last month.
Pires is hoping to partner Lord Da Vinci in an open sprint in Melbourne on Saturday week at Caulfield.