Du Plessis still hitting winners despite deep jockey pool

Zimbabwean jockey Mark Du Plessis

The life of a jockey is anything but easy, regardless of what some disgruntled punters may think, but life in Queensland as a professional hoop has become even harder in the past 12 months, according to Mark Du Plessis.

At the conclusion of the 2020/21 season, senior riders dominated the Queensland Metropolitan Jockeys’ Premiership as Ryan Maloney, Jim Byrne and Robbie Fradd fought out the top three, with James Orman and Ben Thompson hot on their tails.

With the 2021/22 season just a tick over the halfway point, the leaderboard is painting a different story, as young guns Jaden Lloyd and Kyle Wilson-Taylor are serving it up to the senior riders.

Du Plessis is no stranger to success, having partnered over 1,500 winners across the globe, but he believes that the Queensland jockey ranks are now among the most competitive he has seen in some time.

“Definitely in the last 12 months (it’s become more competitive), because a lot of the younger riders can ride 54kg,” he told HorseBetting.

“So it does take away quite a bit of my luck, so I have to just keep riding winners.

“If you can keep riding winners – which I think I am – then you can pop up every now and then.

“I always do my best and work as hard as I can, so if you can do that as much as possible, it’s got to help somewhere, but it would be nice to get a bit of a base, but we’ll keep working on it.”

Du Plessis is a naturally lightweight jockey, so he often rides horses with a lower rating at the bottom end of the market, but he doesn’t let that stop him from booting home metropolitan winners.

The Zimbabwean expat rode in seven races at Doomben on February 12, finishing in the minor money twice early in the card before causing a major upset in the last race of the day as Montenegro Man ($41) defeated Kingston’s Here by half-a-length.

The Brisbane jockey ranks are set to be strengthened even more in the next few weeks as star apprentice Jaden Lloyd makes a move to Brisbane to ride for Steven O’Dea & Matt Hoysted on a full-time basis.

Lloyd currently sits third on the Queensland Metropolitan Jockeys’ Premiership table, having ridden 30 winners in the city this season.

Also riding for the O’Dea & Hoysted stable on a regular basis is in-form hoop Boris Thornton, who has one of the best winning strike rates (15.3%) in the state after riding 13 metropolitan winners – five of which have come since January 29.

Thornton’s sister Stephanie and her fiancé Ben Thompson are also flying, with 22 and 16 metropolitan winners respectively.

The Metropolitan Apprentice Jockeys’ Premiership race is heating up too, with Kyle Wilson-Taylor just half a win behind Lloyd having ridden 29.5 metropolitan winners from his 221 rides in the city over the past six months.

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