Taylor Shows He's Still Got the Winning Touch

Any thoughts of retirement are well and truly off the radar for veteran jockey Jason Taylor after his hot form on northern tracks continued with a winning double at Cluden Park on Friday.

Brisbane-based Taylor landed his second double in as many meetings in Townsville with wins on Bakersfield and the heavily backed Crowning Moment, both in the Hedley colours.

With premier hoop Lacey Morrison almost unstoppable too with three wins of her own, Taylor – one of the most popular riders on the circuit – is chuffed with his winning run which started with five winners on Cairns Cup Day.

A dual G1 winning jockey, Taylor is loving his remarkable resurgence at age 51 after his career was all but ended after a horrific incident at the Gold Coast in February 2021.

His mount flipped over backwards on to him behind the barriers. Taylor landed in intensive care with eight broken ribs, punctured lung, facial injuries and bruising and by his own admission the future was grim.

“I just think I’ve got my love for it again. The accident at the Gold Coast really put a lot of things into perspective and gave me a lot of time to think about what I wanted to do,” Taylor said.

“I had major injuries and thought then and there this is it – I’m done.

“But after a little while I thought to myself this is not how I want to finish up. I want to get back out there again and see if I’ve still got the passion for it.

“When I came back from the injury I started just poking along, maybe a few at the Coast on a Saturday and maybe a few through the week. My manager said I’ve been getting inundated with calls with offers for up north.

“And I said you know why not. I’m just going to go all in and do it.

“Now I’m riding more because I’m enjoying doing it.

“You’re more relaxed, the horses are more relaxed, you do have your moments but they soon pass.

“I’m loving the travel. There’s a good group of us that travel up regularly and we’ve got a bit of a camaraderie there and we’re ripping on each other all of the time, and it’s a lot of fun.

“Things changed for me last year.  I had a bit of luck through Nathan Thomas’ misfortune. He had a bad fall and he was actually riding Star Status all the way through including the Amateur Cup in Cairns.

“Luckily for me I picked up the ride on all of Fred Wieland’s (Cairns trainer) and we just had a cracking carnival that year. Everything was just winning.

“That kind of launched everything and followed through to this year.

“I had a great Cairns carnival this year without winning any of the major features but in saying that we still managed to pick up the Guineas, the Lightning.

“It’s kicked on with quite a few in the Hedley colours. Tom’s been a great supporter which I’m very grateful for.”

Taylor joined an elite group of jockeys in Queensland to win the Stradbroke and the Brisbane Cup when it was a Group 1 two mile race.

A natural lightweight, Taylor guided 50-1 shot Star Covet to a 4.5 length win in the 2001 Cup.

A decade later he charged to victory on Sincero in the $1m Stradbroke Hcp for trainer Tracey Bartley.

“Sincero that was absolutely magic. As a jockey to win the big G1s in your home town is always a feather in the cap, especially the Stradbroke and the Brisbane Cup which was then 3200m,” Taylor said.

“The win on Star Covet was also unforgettable. It was a big blow that when he was spelling before a Melbourne Cup campaign he got colic and died just before he was due to come into work.

“I was all set to head to Melbourne and start that campaign down there and I was bit unfortunate with that.”

In more recent years Taylor was just denied a second Stradbroke, this time during the Covid outbreak in 2020.

Riding Madam Rouge for Chris Waller, he was beaten in a driving finish by Tom Hedley’s Tyzone.

“Tom knocked me off,” he said. “These days he’s such a big supporter.

“There’s no timeframes, I’m just going to keep going until I feel I’ve had enough. And the family’s great with that. I think they’re kind of enjoying me going out and doing what I love too.”

Pictured: Jason Taylor returns to scale after winning the Hygain BM65 Hcp (1200m) aboard Crowning Moment.

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