Butler’s found his place on coast

AFTER scouting out his options of where he wanted to relocate to over the recent north Queensland carnival, jockey Morgan Butler has settled on a place to call home.

The Cassowary Coast. Butler, 44, (right) has gradually gone north over the past few months, travelling and riding Sunshine Coast trainer Darryl Hansen’s horses up from Rockhampton.

The former leading Newcastle-based hoop was on the hunt for somewhere to restart his career and eventually settled on Innisfail with Stephen Potiris.

Potiris has been searching for a senior stable rider since what feels like when Jesus was a boy, with Butler to start at Pease Park on Monday morning.

He was hopeful of picking up rides at Mareeba on Saturday but only being able to ride at 57kg has held him back.

Butler is hopeful the FNQ heat will get his weight down.

“I just need to get back into race riding and consistently keep my weight down,” he said.

“For someone who is trying to get back into race riding — I have had a few back — this opportunity will be a great one for me.

“It is so hard to get back into race riding with your fitness when you are at the provincial areas.

“This is what is best for me now, move up and have a crack.”

Butler went 11 years without riding, taking out a trainer’s licence from 2012 to 2018 following a bad fall in 2009 in which he broke his pelvis and spent three months in hospital. “I was in a bad way and the doctor told me I would be lucky to walk again,” he said.

“It took me ages to get my licence and everything back.”

Cairns Amateurs Cup-winning trainer Potiris thinks Butler will be an asset to the industry in the north.

“He can really ride, I know he missed it being away for so long from riding,” Potiris said.

“It has been hard to get someone up here on a permanent basis to be our stable rider and we are glad he has decided to come up.

“Hansen spoke highly of him as a person and jockey, we are happy to have him in Innisfail.”

Butler was the regular trackwork rider of 13-time Group 1 winner Tie The Knot and rode for top trainers Kris Lees, Steve Englebrecht and Gary Portelli.

Racing in the north heads to Mareeba Turf Club on Saturday for the running of its Mareeba Cup Benchmark 65 Handicap (2000m) worth $10,000.

Rachel Shred has three rides at Mareeba on Saturday, her first since a fall at Townsville in late May.

A five-event non-TAB program will be run at Mareeba on Saturday.