Lloyd tightens grip on Bris jockeys’ title

Veteran jockey Jeff Lloyd has shortened to long odds-on favouritism to win his first Brisbane metropolitan premiership after riding four winners at Doomben.

Lloyd, 55, went into the day on 67 winners, one ahead of Jim Orman and 1-1/2 in front of Jim Byrne and ended it five clear on 71 after his rivals failed to fire.

He turned up the heat when he won on Snow Fields ($8), Dream Choice ($4.80), Dame Destiny ($3.80) and Angel Dancer ($9).

Bookmakers reacted immediately, slashing his price from $2.10 to $1.20 to take the title with Orman on $6 and Byrne on $7.

Lloyd has ridden more than 5000 winners in nine countries but his career looked over when he suffered a stroke at Caloundra races in March, 2013.

He was out of the saddle for a year but has ridden more than 200 winners since his return including 105 this season.

It was the second time this season Lloyd had ridden four metropolitan winners in a day. He also achieved the feat at Doomben in October last year.

Bet with Crownbet

“The premiership race isn’t over yet and there is a while to go until the end of the month,” Lloyd said.

It wasn’t all roses for Lloyd who was fined $300 for overuse of the whip in the second race.

John Meagher and his son Chris continued their profitable week when their only runner for the day Harada Bay ($7.50) won.

Harada Bay finished strongly to beat Akavoroun ($7.50) by three quarters of a length with a half neck to Lauterbrunnen ($4.80) in third.

The Meaghers had a treble at Eagle Farm on Wednesday but Harada Bay’s win was special.

“He has been very consistent since we took over his training. He has now won more than $400,000 and there is more to come,” John Meagher said.

Winning jockey Luke Dittman scored his third victory since joining the senior ranks last week and predicted there were better things in store for Harada Bay.

Related Posts

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments