Allen’s plan in good shape
Group 1-winning jockey Ben Allen is happy to clock up the miles in order to reclaim his place in the Melbourne riding ranks after a six-week break.
But Allen will hit the road on foot to slowly get his weight down after a summer spell following a busy spring.
Allen had several important engagements through December, using the time to freshen his mind and body instead of punishing his body to mix riding and the social side.
“I had a couple of weddings on through December and bucks’ parties and because I’m a little bit heavier, it’s a bit hard to go to a wedding then come back and ride,” Allen said.
“It doesn’t give much opportunity because I’d only be riding at the top end of the scale.
“I just thought I’d have the time off and have a good break.”
However, athletes must pay a price for their breaks.
Allen heeded previous lessons learned when planning his 2024 campaign, which started with a win at Cranbourne on Tuesday.
The rider said he worked harder on his fitness than in other years in the lead-up to his first day back riding work earlier this month.
“I’ve been doing heaps and heaps of running and swimming,” Allen said. “After my last decent break, I realised how fit you have to be to come back to the races and how hard it is.
“I knuckled down a bit more this time because if you come back and you’re not fit and you have to lose a bit of weight on your first day back, it really knocks you around a bit and takes you a few days to recover.”
Allen said that approach paid dividends when he sailed through his two rides at Cranbourne but added he would continue to remain patient as he regains his fitness, avoiding the rigours of quickly shedding weight too soon.
“I pulled up surprisingly well from Cranbourne,” Allen said.
“I’m mainly riding about 59.5 (kg) at the moment. I wasn’t sure how the first day would be and I don’t want to be committing to rides and having to kill myself to make the weight. “I just want to ease into it.” While Allen can control the fitness side, he also faces the challenge of re-establishing himself in the pecking order of Melbourne’s biggest stable, the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace camp.
Allen said there was only one way to do that.
“When you go away, it’s always hard coming back because you’ve always got to start from scratch again,” Allen said.
“Even though you get a lot of support, you’ve still got to ride a lot of work and earn the rides you get while other people are battling away doing the same thing.”
Allen will ride Takara for Maher and Eustace at Stony Creek on Thursday and Podente for Mornington trainer Brett Scott at Saturday’s Flemington meeting.