Jeff Lloyd’s last Group 1 victory was on Pear Tart (yellow cap) in the Tattersall’s Tiara at Eagle Farm. Source: News Limited
IT WAS the day champion jockey Jeff Lloyd feared would never come again.
After suffering a stroke at the Sunshine Coast races in March last year, the 52-year-old wondered whether he would fully recover let alone ever ride again.
But little more than a month after returning to the saddle, the veteran hoop will return to where he belongs when he pilots Star Fashion in the Group 1 Queensland Oaks (2400m) at Eagle Farm tomorrow.
It’s been two years since Lloyd’s last ride in a Group 1 when he duly saluted on Pear Tart in the 2012 Tattersall’s Tiara.
Jeff Lloyd celebrates his Tattersall's Tiara win on Pear Tart at Eagle Farm. Source: News Limited
The victory took his tally of Group 1 winners to 93 but Lloyd admits it would be a different feeling if he could make it 94 tomorrow.
“It was my biggest challenge ever to comeback after (the stroke),” said Lloyd, who lives with his family on the Gold Coast but currently resides in Sydney five days a week for riding commitments.
“I don’t normally get very excited about riding winners and I try to keep a low profile but I would be pretty emotional and excited if it was to come off.
“Honestly to me it was not just about riding Group 1 winners again and I just wanted to ride well again.
“My first dream was to ride another winner as soon as possible and if I could win a Group 1 at my first attempt back it would be very special.”
Lloyd, who has ridden all over the world and made his name in South Africa, is grateful for the opportunity but admits he was a little shocked when trainer David Hayes called to offer him The Oaks ride on Star Fashion.
It’s not because he doesn’t feel ready.
After riding seven winners in his first month back, Lloyd has more than shown he has still got it.
It was because Hayes had hundreds of jockeys to select from and the pair had never combined much before.
But Hayes said it was an easy call to put Lloyd on.
“He is a world class rider and every time I look up when I’m sitting in my lounge room I see J Lloyd ride a winner, so I thought he will do,” Hayes said.
“It’s an incredible comeback but sometimes in comebacks from an enforced delay it either makes them or breaks them.
“I reckon he has come back fresher and hungrier and is really appreciating and enjoying his riding more than he ever has from an outsider looking in.”
And when asked if he could provide Lloyd with the fairy-tale Group 1 comeback tomorrow, Hayes can’t see why not.
Star Fashion finished a narrow runner-up in the Group 1 Australasian Oaks (2000m) at Morphettville last month before running second again as a short-priced favourite in the Listed Centaurea Stakes (2006m) at the same track a fortnight later.
And Hayes is confident she will measure up tomorrow.
“She is untested at the distance but her form is impeccable,” he said.
“She should get the distance and her mother was better at 2000m than 2400m but she was still effective at 2400m.”
As for Lloyd, he is not sure what the future holds.
The stroke last year taught him not to look too far ahead.
“Originally I said I would do it for six months and I will give myself the option then to keep going or stop,” he said.
“At the moment my health is very good and my weight is keeping up to it.
“If it keeps going the way it is going then I would like to finish a full season and see how many winners I can ride and take it from there.”
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Topic Author
