The uncertainty of the year 2020 was the furthest thing from Michael Rodd’s mind as he notched a winning double at Eagle Farm last Saturday. He won an early race on Abracadazzle for Tony Gollan and a later one on Joymaker for Kelly Schweida. The latter brought up Michael’s twenty eighth metropolitan win since his return to Queensland just four months ago.
This time last year the multiple Group 1 winning jockey was on the brink of fleeing Singapore as the stark reality of Covid 19 closed in. A rapidly increasing number of infections had forced the total lockdown of the Kranji racing precinct for an indefinite period.
After five very productive years, Michael was bitterly disappointed to have to call time on his Singapore adventure. He’d been among the top five jockeys for each of those years and had ridden 10 Group 1 winners taking his career tally to an impressive 46. His immediate future couldn’t have been rosier, but there was no escaping the looming pandemic.
Cara Rodd decided that she should move with the couple’s two young daughters to the home of her parents in Rockhampton, leaving Michael with the daunting task of deciding whether he should ply his trade in Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne. He felt his Melbourne Cup and Cox Plate wins in the mid 2000’s would guarantee a successful return to Victorian racing. He relinquished his Singapore Turf Club licence last April and returned to the scene of his greatest triumphs.
Michael makes it a double at Eagle Farm on the Kelly Schweida trained Joymaker - his 28th metro winner since relocating to Brisbane - courtesy Trackside Photography.
Michael initially moved to Melbourne in 2006 when invited by Lloyd Williams to become his stable jockey - a partnership that brought a constant flow of winners including an association with the wonderful stayer Efficient. Michael won three races on Efficient including the AAMI Vase and Victoria Derby of 2006. A year later Steve Arnold rode the gelding in four lead up races to the Melbourne Cup and had first option on the ride in the great race. In a surprise switch Steve elected to ride stablemate Gallic in the big one, presenting Michael with an unexpected opportunity.
“Apart from one tense moment at the 800m when his stablemate Zipping held me in a pocket, I had a pretty good run,” said Rodd. “Efficient sprinted like a Gr 1 sprinter in the straight to beat the Luca Cumani trained Purple Moon. It was the thrill of a lifetime.”
Michael brings Efficient with a well timed run to defeat Purple Moon (D. Oliver) in the 2007 Melbourne Cup - courtesy Steve Hart Photographics.
An association with trainer Mark Kavanagh produced some spectacular results for the young jockey. Maldivian was the horse to provide him with a massive high and a devastating low. Michael thought the gelding was next door to a good thing in the Caulfield Cup of 2007 following a dominant win in the Gr 1 Yalumba Stakes. His dreams were shattered when Maldivian was scratched by the stewards after a freak barrier mishap in which he sustained a puncture wound to his near foreleg.
All was forgotten a year later when Maldivian led throughout to beat Zipping and Samantha Miss in the iconic W.S. Cox Plate. The following autumn Michael snared a third Gr 1 on the Zabeel gelding when they combined to win the C.F. Orr Stakes.
The jockey won a Caulfield Guineas on Whobegotyou for Mark Kavanagh but was thwarted in several other Gr 1 races on the chestnut gelding - seconds in a Vic Derby, Underwood Stakes and Doomben $10,000 and thirds in a Cox Plate and Doncaster Hcp. Michael still regards Vision And Power’s Doncaster of 2009 as the one that got away.
Rodd and Kavanagh combined to win two Gr 1’s with the bonny mare Divine Madonna - the Toorak Hcp and Myer Classic of 2007. She came from well back in both races with her trademark acceleration.
Another Kavanagh trained mare remains Michael’s all time favourite and earns his acknowledgement as the best horse he’s ever ridden. The massively talented but unsound Atlantic Jewel won ten of eleven starts before succumbing to a tendon injury. The jockey believes an excessively slow pace in the 2013 Underwood Stakes deprived her of an unblemished record.
Michael responds to the plaudits of the crowd before weighing in after his Melbourne Cup win on Efficient - courtesy Steve Hart Photographics.
Damien Oliver and Steven Baster won minor races on Atlantic Jewel early in her career, but Rodd was the jockey in nine of her starts. He won four Gr 1’s on the daughter of Fastnet Rock, some of them by huge margins - a Thousand Guineas by 3 lengths, a Wakeful Stakes by 7 lengths, and a Caulfield Stakes by 4 lengths.
With a Melbourne CV of such distinction you can understand why Michael expected to quickly regenerate his career in Victoria.
“I soon found out my achievements of 2007/2008 meant little in 2020,” said the popular jockey. “Older warriors like Damien Oliver, Dwayne Dunn and Craig Williams were still going strong, but an army of talented younger riders had emerged. In the early weeks I was flat out finding horses to ride in track gallops. My race rides were scarce and I found myself travelling long distances to meetings where my old reputation got me a few rides.
“The opportunities gradually picked up at major provincial tracks like Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong, but city rides were infrequent. The first trainer to start using me in town was Lindsey Smith, and in trying to repay his support I found myself driving three or four hours to Warrnambool to ride work for the stable. For a jockey who’d never been short of opportunities, I was in foreign territory. I don’t mind admitting the old ego took a massive hit.
A rewarding homecoming! Michael returns to scale on Emerald King after a win in the recent Sunshine Coast Cup - courtesy Trackside Photography.
“On top of this, Cara and the children were a million miles away in Rockhampton. At the time Lyla was four, and the baby Chloe was just eight months old. I was missing them all terribly, and the only thing to save my sanity was Face Time. After eight months the writing was on the wall. I opted to return to Queensland where my career had its beginnings almost twenty years earlier.”
Queensland trainers welcomed Michael Rodd with open arms, and his services were immediately in demand. One of those trainers was his former master Bryan Guy, now in a training partnership with son Daniel on the Gold Coast. “Bryan was getting ready to move from Rosehill to the Gold Coast when I became apprenticed to him in 1999,” said Michael. “He gave me my first race ride on Tornato Lass at Gosford in January 2000, and I absolutely slaughtered the filly. I don’t know how she managed to run second.
A few months later he gave me another crack on the same filly at Grafton, and this time I got the job done. I’ll always be grateful to Bryan and Tornato Lass for giving me that magical first win. Not long after Bryan headed to the Gold Coast, and thankfully took me with him.”
Michael Rodd quickly established himself among the younger brigade of Queensland’s jockeys, and reeled off three junior premierships. The first of his 46 Gr 1 victories came along late in his apprenticeship when NZ trainer Murray Baker campaigned in Brisbane with the good staying mare Prized Gem.
Baker took a shine to the successful apprentice and decided to use his services in the Prime Minister’s Cup with happy results. Michael brought Prized Gem from the tail of the field to win the Gold Coast feature. Grant Cooksley was on board next run when the mare finished third in the P.J.O’Shea Stakes, but young Rodd was reinstated for the Brisbane Cup. Another patient ride resulted in a narrow win and Michael Rodd had joined the Gr 1 club.
The thirty nine year old jockey slipped seamlessly back into the Brisbane racing environment. He’s had strong support from trainers like Bryan Guy, Tony Gollan, Rob Heathcote, Kelly Schweida, Chris Anderson, Stuart Kendrick, Matt Kropp, Peter Hulbert and Darryl Hansen.
Several doubles and trebles have contributed to 45 Queensland wins in just over four months with 28 on metropolitan tracks. After his year in the wilderness the outstanding jockey has got his life back to where it was before the intrusion of the insidious virus. With his young family by his side and his career back on track, Michael Rodd can look forward to the best decade of an already distinguished career.
Michael has ridden for some of Australia's most high profile stables. Here he is in the famous Bart Cummings colours - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
(Banner image - Michael wins on Abracadazzle for Tony Gollan at Eagle Farm on Saturday - courtesy Trackside Photography.)