Aaron Bullock looking to break city drought with Wing Snipper
SINGLETON jockey Aaron Bullock is optimistic he could ride his first city winner after nearly a decade in the saddle when he heads to Warwick Farm on Wednesday and jumps aboard Wing Snipper.
Trained at Wyong by Allen Denham, Wing Snipper has faced the starter on nine occasions from which he has put together four wins and three minor placings.
Two of his victories have come at his two most recent outings since resuming from a spell, with Bullock riding at both starts at Cessnock and Scone respectively.
Now, the four-year-old gelding heads to town on Wednesday where it will contest race three, a benchmark 72 handicap event over the 1000m trip.
Despite being tasked with carrying 59kg, Bullock says he is feeling confident that Wing Snipper will run a bold race.
“He will run well,” Bullock told HorseBetting.com.au.
“There has been a bit of rain around which has made the tracks wet which suits – every start he has had on rain affected tracks he has blown them away.
“It looks a winnable race too – so he should go down there on Wednesday and be very hard to beat.”
Bullock has only had a limited amount of rides for Denham, but says it has been a successful association so far.
“I have known Allan for a long time but I only started riding for him about six months ago.
“I have probably only had 20 rides for him, but I think I have ridden six or seven winners and about 10 placings.
“He is a very good trainer – he places his horses right and they run very well for him.”
In particular, Bullock believes Wing Snipper has a solid future ahead of him.
“He is a pretty good horse – I have had two rides on him for two wins and found that he is very speedy.
“Both times I have ridden him he has definitely given me the feeling that he is a city horse.”
It could be a big week for Bullock, who also had a successful day in the saddle at Scone on Sunday.
Whilst he didn’t ride a winner, the 26-year-old rode three place getters including Nic’s Vendetta which ran second in a heat of the Country Championships.
The performance was enough to book the Todd Howlett-trained gelding a berth in the $400,000 grand final at Randwick on April 1.
Bullock was rapt with the run on the weekend and is now looking forward to the feature final.
“It was great to qualify, especially because I was able to do it for my old boss, Todd Howlett, who I completed my apprenticeship with,” he said.
“I thought he would run a good race because he is a pretty decent horse and I had done a bit of work on him over the past couple of weeks.
“It was hard to say whether he’d be able to do enough to qualify because there were some good horses in the race, but he did really well.
“He has had a couple of starts in town already and they have been good runs where he had to do it at both ends and contend with bad barriers.
“At those starts he was racing in the Highway Handicaps and now he heads back there through the Country Championships which is a similar bunch of horses in that they are all from the country so he should be competitive.
“The Championships are a great initiative because it gives the country trainers a chance to race for some decent prize money.
“It is also good for jockeys such as myself when you have got trainers such as Todd who let you ride in the qualifier and then stick with you in the final rather than replacing you with a city jockey.”
With some exciting rides ahead, the coming weeks could be the biggest Bullock has experienced throughout his career as a jockey which kicked off when he was only 16 years old.
“I got involved in the industry initially when I was still at school – I wanted a job in the afternoons to get a bit of money for the weekends.
“I went over the road to where Todd Howlett used to be and I asked him for a job. I never had any horse background – so it was definitely one of the hardest things I have ever had to learn.
“It took me a long time to learn how to ride – it takes a lot of balance – it certainly didn’t come overnight.
“I started riding in races when I left school and I have been riding on and off since then.
“I left riding in 2011 and went and worked on the roads for three years.
“It took me a while to grow up and mature, but I definitely feel like I am on track now.
“I have only had a handful of rides in town and I am still trying to get my first winner down there.
“It would be a huge thrill to finally land my first city winner – it has been a long time in the making.”
Wing Snipper’s race will jump at 1.10pm this Wednesday.
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