Retiring jockey looking forward to Christmas lunch and sleep-ins
Senior jockey Matthew Cameron has called time on his riding career after completing his last race day at Awapuni on Saturday.
Cameron, 34, finished on a winning note by piloting the Ross McCarroll-trained Initiative, but admits his desire to continue has waned in recent months.
‘‘I have been thinking about and contemplating my options for a while now,’’ Cameron said. ‘‘I spoke with my manager about a week ago and decided that Saturday would be my last day.
‘‘There’s no one reason for my decision but I’ve been doing this for over 20 years now and my motivation is not what it should be to do justice to my riding and for the people who support me.
‘‘I’ma firmbeliever that if I am questioning why I’mout there and not feeling it like I used to, then I’mletting the trainers, owners and horses down and that’s not what I want to do.
‘‘They deserve me to be 100 per cent in the game with the money they are racing for, so I felt it best to take a break.’’
After a relatively slow start to his apprenticeship with Taranaki trainer Allan Sharrock, Cameron soon took off under his mentor’s guidance to become the champion apprentice in 2005/2006 with 60 wins. Success was also relatively hard to come by after completing his apprenticeship, but amove to the Te Akau Racing set-up coincided with his career taking off as he secured better mounts and the wins began to flow. ‘‘ When I started with Te Akau the doors really opened for me and I rode a lot of winners over the years I was there.’’
‘‘I was there for about four or five years and then moved on to an association with Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman which was also great for my career. Riding for Te Akau and then for Murray and Andrew sawme tally over 100 wins a season for five years in a row, which really set my career up.’’
Cameron retires with 1408 New Zealand wins to his name, 94 Group or Listed victories and the title of champion jockey in the 2013/14 and 2014/15 seasons.
He can reflect onmany highlights included in those statistics with one standing out.
‘‘I’ve had a lot of tremendous moments inmy career, but one I amvery proud of was my win aboard Who Shot Thebarman in the 2014 Auckland Cup (group I, 3200m),’’ he said.
‘‘I’d won the Avondale Cup (group II, 2400m) on him a fortnight earlier and in between times had a bad fall where I sustained a serious knee injury.
‘‘I rode him in the Auckland Cup with my knee all strapped up and he won it like the great stayer he was.’’ Cameron doesn’t have any plans in place but is looking forward to the next few weeks where he can sleep in late and eat what he wants to.