Morrison Has Magic Touch in Four Win Haul

Premier hoop Lacey Morrison is inching closer to life after riding but in the meantime there’s no stopping her on the race track.

Morrison produced a riding masterclass at Cluden on Friday, landing four winners, two seconds and a third on the eight event card.

Her dominant performance was a major return to the riding ranks after a light month of engagements while she completed a hospital placement for her nursing studies.

The Atherton Tableland’s based jockey was beaming with the result.

“I’ve just finished my four week placement for my stage 1 nursing so I haven’t been able to ride during the week, and on the Saturdays, given it’s the wet season, a lot of the race meetings have been called off,” Morrison said.

“I’m so grateful to be back today. My placement was really good at the Herberton Hospital.

“They let me do 10 hour shifts which meant I could smash it out finish earlier than expected so I could get back riding.

“I was a bit worried today about my fitness. I haven’t been able to ride work and I’ve had three race rides in the past month.

“But my residual fitness was there and I came through it really well.”

Morrison, who turns 40 next month, can now see her plan to replace riding with nursing as her main livelihood within reach.

After a lengthy absence from the industry following a number of terrible race falls, Morison made a surprise return to race riding four seasons ago to give her a livelihood while she completed her nursing studies.

With 12 months of study to go, she’s already looking ahead to when race riding will again take a back seat.

“I think I’m still riding ok. I try to give all of my horses the best possible chance but it helps when you’ve got good horses underneath you,” Morrison said.

“I’m one third of the way through my nursing studies, and once I’m finished in about a year I’ll probably stop riding work and just ride on a Saturday.

“It won’t happen straight away as soon as I finish my studies. There’ll be a transition.

“All I wanted to do was be a jockey, I love it, and the enthusiasm is still there.”

Morrison’s dream day got off to the best possible start with a win in the first on the Roy Chillemi-trained two-year-old Better Show.

She quickly followed with wins on the Georgie Holt-trained Mooloolaba and Hurtle, and a victory on Starhattan to renew an old association with Emerald trainer Trevor Williams.

Morrison, originally from Springsure, rode for Williams back in her apprentice days.

“It was great to win a couple of races for Georgie and Aidan Holt, and Roy of course, and for Trevor – that was very nice,” Morrison said.

‘He’s been chasing me to ride his horses ever since I came back riding.

“I rode for him years ago when I was an apprentice so I was really happy to ride a winner for him.”

Morrison’s double for the Holts sealed a winning treble for the stable and continued their extraordinary run of winners at Cluden.

They landed their third winner for the day when new stable runner Win And Tonic cruised to an easy maiden win.

“Couldn’t be happier - I’m just hoping we can keep it going,” Holt said.

“We were pretty confident with our runners today, so to come away with a treble is a great result. It doesn’t always work out like that.

“All of our horses have run so well, even the old girl Hit Snooze ran a terrific race to run third in the last.

“Some new blood coming into the stables is kicking things along.

“Another big factor of keeping horses up and running well through the heat is Aidan riding a lot of the important work.

“He gets a good feel on how they’re coping in their work and can adjust things to make sure they’re not overdoing things.”

Speedy mare Chilli Jam continued her winning form with a strong victory in the Hygain Class 3 Plate (1000m).

The Tony Comerford-trained four-year-old has now won three races in a row.

Pictured: Premier jockey and trainer, Lacey Morrison and Georgie Holt, with Aidan Holt and Mooloolaba after taking out the BM65 Handicap (1609m) at Cluden Park on Friday 15 March, 2024.

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