Almost fourteen years have passed since Jay Ford first thundered over the hallowed turf of Royal Ascot and Newmarket on the back of the celebrated sprinter Takeover Target - the first of his four trips to the UK.
Last Saturday there wasn’t a top hat in sight as the popular lightweight jockey rounded off a hectic week with five rides at Mudgee. He won the first race on Will To Exceed for the Mack Griffith stable, and notched a couple of seconds in later races. His final ride for the day was the unplaced Lifetime Quest in the last race - his thirtieth race ride in seven days, embracing five meetings and four different tracks.
Those thirty rides yielded the healthy return of five wins and nine placings for a wide range of stables. As soon as Jay had completed commitments at The Championships in April, he made application to switch to the South/West zone and immediately began a compulsory fourteen day quarantine period.
“With more than twenty top riders locked into the Metro zone, it made good sense to ride out of town,” said Jay. “I already had established clientele at several of the designated tracks, so the choice of zone was a no-brainer.”
At 36, Jay Ford is a thoroughly experienced professional jockey who enjoys the luxury of being able to ride comfortably at 53kgs. More importantly he gets to eat three meals a day, none of them excessive but three nevertheless - a privilege enjoyed by a small minority of jockeys.
Image courtesy Steve Hart Photographics - Jay with the Salinger trophy after his first ride down the famous Flemington straight course.
Jay is the eldest of three kids born to Ron and Alison Ford. He grew up in the inner Sydney suburb of Ashbury, a stone’s throw from Canterbury racecourse. By the time young Ford decided to become an apprentice jockey, the Sydney Turf Club had closed Canterbury as a training centre.
Coincidentally it was former Canterbury trainer Rod Craig who indentured Jay at his new Warwick Farm base. “I had a very valuable eighteen months with Rod around the time Intergaze was coming to the end of his great career,” recalled the jockey.
Once the youngster was riding in races, Rod Craig suggested he should apply for a position which had come up with successful trainer Keith Dryden at Canberra. “Rod felt I should make use of my country allowance, and further my experience with a very astute horseman,” said Jay. “It was my first time away from home and did me the world of good. Keith gave me as much riding as he could, enabling me to make steady improvement.”
Surprisingly Keith Dryden didn’t train young Ford’s first winner. When Joe Janiak legged the Canberra apprentice onto The Chumbolly for a Queanbeayan maiden on 31/03/2001, neither realised a life changing horse would bring them together again a few years down the track.
The Chumbolly scrambled home to win that 900m scamper by only a long head. Young Jay’s excitement had to be put on hold for a while when the rider of the runner up lodged an objection. He was new to the tension of a protest hearing, but with Joe’s help was able to retain the race.
They were destined to attend another protest hearing seven years later, which would cause them great disappointment. A few minutes after Takeover Target had won the 2008 Villiers Stakes they found themselves seated opposite a stewards panel headed by Ray Murrihy. An objection had been fired in by Hugh Bowman, rider of the runner up.
By now a public idol, Takeover Target with 61kgs had prevailed narrowly from Honour In War (USA) to whom he conceded 6.5 kgs. The decision by AJC Stewards to uphold that protest, sparked a loud demonstration from a 6000 strong crowd and prolonged debate from those present at the inquiry.
Image courtesy Bradley Photographers - Jay won on the promising Peltzer for Gerald Ryan at Kembla 28/04/2020.
Jay rode a number of country winners after opening his account on The Chumbolly, but had to wait sixteen months before that elusive first metropolitan winner came along. He was having only his third or fourth city ride when he got Freestyler home at a Warwick Farm midweek meeting for trainer Amanda Langlar.
His country claim evaporated quickly, prompting Keith Dryden to recommend a move to a metropolitan stable. The young jockey closed the door on a rewarding two years with the Canberra trainer and was blessed to be signed up by the amiable Kim Waugh whose career was gathering momentum at Rosehill.
It was Kim who put Jay on a genuine stakes horse for the first time in his short career. The young jockey won four races on the big, free rolling gelding Spinning Con including a listed Tatt’s Club Cup at Randwick.
The trainer thought enough of her stable apprentice to give him several rides on her all time favourite Mahtoum, winner of eight races including a Sydney Cup and more than $1 million dollars .Jay won a restricted race on the tough gelding at Rosehill and later got to ride him in two high profile Queensland races. “I rode him in a Hollindale Stakes and a Doomben Cup, finishing unplaced but right on the heels of the placegetters in both races. It was so good of Kim to put me on at that level.”
Image courtesy Bradley Photographers - Jay in one of two Group one wins on the Anthony Cummings trained Hotel Grand - the 2006 Randwick Guineas.
Jay Ford has never taken for granted the opportunity he was given to ride a horse of Takeover Target’s ability and remarkable consistency. He rode the great sprinter in all but two of his lifetime starts, and in twenty of his twenty one wins. He was the jockey in seven of the gelding’s eight Group 1 victories, and remembers his disappointment when replaced by Nash Rawiller in the the 2009 T.J.Smith.
“Joe was always concerned about the horse carrying so much dead weight when I was riding him,” recalled Jay. “He’d been thinking about trying a heavier jockey just to see if it did make a difference. It wasn’t entirely unexpected when he switched to Nash in the T.J.Smith, but I was gutted nevertheless.
“To his credit Joe promised I would be back on him next start no matter what happened in the T.J.Smith. Even though he won easily for Nash, Joe put me straight back on and I was able to win his final Group 1, the Goodwood Hcp.”
Jay still marvels at the gelding’s three amazing attempts to win the famous Royal Ascot sprint treble. Three cracks at the King’s Stand Stakes for a win, a second, and a fourth, and three shots at the Golden Jubilee Stakes for a second, third and fourth - each time against Europe’s elite sprinters at one of the world’s great racing festivals.
Image courtesy Steve Hart Photographics - Jay, Joe Janiak and Takeover Target a few months after the champion sprinter's final race. He was farewelled by Sydney fans at Randwick in November 2009.
Jay has no doubt about Takeover Target’s day of days - his finest moment as a racehorse. “He never felt better than he did on the occasion of his win in the Group 1 Sprinter’s Stakes at the Nakayama track in Japan,” said the jockey. “There were six or seven Group 1 winners in the race including the incredible Silent Witness who’d won the race a year earlier, and had won 18 races straight at one stage. Target would have run through a brick wall on the day. No sprinter in the world would have beaten him”.
Jay knew Takeover Target had broken down when he felt him falter in the closing stages of the 2009 July Cup at the historic Newmarket course. “His action was suddenly all over the place and he didn’t want to know about it in the closing stages which was completely out of character for him,” said the jockey.
Some time later vets at the Newmarket Veterinary Hospital diagnosed a nasty crack to the near hind cannon bone. The insertion of five screws pulled the fracture together and to Joe Janiak’s relief his champion would be able to return to Australia, for a well earned retirement.
Takeover Target was to spend five years in a lush paddock at Coffs Harbour before a freakish paddock accident in 2015 ended his life. “I’ll never forget the emotion in Joe Janiak’s voice when he rang to tell me his old champion had been euthanised,” recalled Jay. “Target was simply scrambling back onto his feet after a roll when his damaged leg gave way. The cannon bone could no longer do its job.”
Despite his impressive seven Group 1’s on the champion sprinter, it was important that Jay followed up at the elite level on other horses for other stables - he’s been able to achieve that on four occasions.
Image courtesy Bradley Photographers - Jay rode the imported horse Shraaoh at 51 kgs to win the 2019 Sydney Cup from Vengeur Masque (D. Oliver).
He had seven rides on the Anthony Cummings trained Hotel Grand for three wins at the top level. In the spring of 2005 he won the Gr 3 Newcastle Spring Stakes and the Group 1 Spring Champion Stakes on the son of Grand Lodge. Although the colt finished with the tailenders in the Cox Plate, it was a tremendous thrill for the young Sydney jockey to participate in one of the world’s great WFA races.
Hotel Grand began his autumn preparation in 2006 with a good fourth in the Hobartville Stakes before giving Ford another Group 1 success in winning the Randwick Guineas. “He pulled up with a sesamoid injury when he performed poorly in the Rosehill Guineas and had to be retired,” said the jockey. “Awful luck for all concerned. He was a very talented horse.”
Astute trainer Mike Moroney acknowledged the talents of twenty five year old Ford, when he snapped him up for Monaco Consul in the 2009 Spring Champion Stakes. The son of High Chaparral had won only one race from four starts in NZ, but Moroney had no hesitation in shipping him straight to Sydney for the Group 1.“He revelled on a Heavy 8 track and came from midfield to swamp the leaders,” said Jay. “He was very strong on the line.”
Three weeks later Monaco Consul proved his versatility when he won the Victoria Derby on a good track. Corey Brown, who was based in Melbourne for the spring carnival picked up the ride on the lightly raced colt.
Image courtesy Bradley Photographers - Jay wins the 2009 Spring Champion Stakes for Mike Moroney on Monaco Consul.
It’s only a matter of time before Jay’s ability to ride feather light, steers him onto another Group 1 winner as it did in the 2019 Sydney Cup. Chris Waller was quick to snap him up for the imported Shraaoh on just 51kgs - a weight few mature jockeys can manage these days. A perfect ride got Shraaoh home from Vengeur Masque to give Ford his eleventh Group 1 win.
As soon as the insidious Covid curse is over, Jay will gravitate back to the metropolitan area. He’ll be guided week to week by his experienced manager Bryan Haskins in determining whether he stays in town, or heads to Newcastle or Kembla.
The popular jockey can look back on some pretty comforting achievements after eighteen years in the saddle. He was Sydney’s champion metropolitan apprentice in the 2003/2004 season with a very healthy 43 winners. He’s already been the regular rider of a champion sprinter who gained enormous recognition in two hemispheres.
His eleven Group 1 wins clearly illustrate his ability to deliver on racing’s biggest stage. He possesses the one secret weapon that many jockeys crave - the ability to shun the dreaded sweat box.
Even better than another Group 1 win or the opportunity to ride another Takeover Target, is a happy family life with wife Verity and four year old daughter Michaela.
There’s very little Jay Ford would change at this time in his life.
(Banner image courtesy Steve Hart Photographics - One of Jay's 7 Group One wins on Takeover Target - the 2004 Flemington Salinger Stakes.)