By Chris Roots
Jeff Lloyd continues to do things he isn't supposed to do. There aren't that many 55-year-old jockeys around. None who have come back from a stroke.
But Lloyd hasn't stopped there. He is the leading jockey in Australia for the season and is an outstanding chance of a multi-million-dollar payday in the Magic Millions Classic and Guineas at the Gold Coast on Saturday.
"I was told I wasn't going to ride again, so you take that from the doctor as black and white. I thought that was end," Lloyd said of his recovery from the stroke he suffered in March 2103.
"It was probably 10 months after the stroke that I thought I could ride again. I was lucky that my third ride back was a winner. It has gone from there."
Back on top: Jeff Lloyd rides favourites in the Magic Millions Classic and Guineas after coming back from a stroke.Credit: Harrison Saragossi
Lloyd, who was a six-time champion jockey of South Africa and has 93 group 1 wins to his name, decided to base himself in Queensland a couple of years ago. He won the Brisbane premiership last season and is closing on 100 wins in less than six months.
Punters have become used to Lloyd riding five winners at a meeting in Eagle Farm or seven winners at one on the Sunshine Coast in the past couple of months.
"You don't come back unless you think you are capable of being where you were. It has taken a lot of work but I'm not surprised," he said.
Success in racing breeds opportunity but in Lloyd's case his main rides at the Gold Coast are due to long-term contacts. Toby Edmonds has been his main source of winners for the season, 39 and counting, and he will leg him up on unbeaten filly Houtzen in the two-year-old Classic. She is still second pick in betting behind the Chris Waller-trained From Within, despite drawing the outside gate.
"She's done what has been asked of her but she has to take the next step," Lloyd said. "The draw could bring her undone on Saturday but if she pulls it off, it will make her look brilliant. Any two-year-old with gate speed always has an advantage and she has that."
Lloyd has been on Winning Rupert for all five of his wins in an unbeaten career. It is trained by Bjorn Baker, whose father Murray supplied him with an Australian Derby victory courtesy of Nom Du Jeu in 2008, and the jockey rates Winning Rupert highly.
"At this stage of his career he has done what most horses do when they go on to become really good horses. He still has to take the next step and win at group 1 level," Lloyd said.
"I wouldn't say he has met great horses but the way he has done it and the times he has run at this stage are as good as anything I have ridden. He is a very nice horse. He is not coltish. He has got a good character and I have no doubt if there is a fight, he will give his all."