One of the country’s most successful jumps jockeys in Mathew Gillies will make a welcome return to the riding ranks at Wanganui on Sunday.
Originally hailing from Palmerston North, the Auckland-based hoop won the National Jumps Jockeys’ Premiership in the 2013-24 season and has steered home a total of 101 winners, including six in Australia.
Through this period, Gillies won a number of prestige races while also spending time on the sidelines through injury, but it was the COVID-19 outbreak that kept him out of the saddle after Grand National Week in 2021.
“I was living in Auckland at the time, so I was locked in and unable to ride anymore,” he said.
“I looked to come back in the next season, but during that COVID period, I did a lot of tree chopping and splitting wood by hand, so I gained a lot of muscle and didn’t have the right mindset. I schooled a lot of horses for Kevin Myers, but I just couldn’t get my weight down.
“I’ve been riding two or three horses a morning when I can, but my main job has been working for Airport Livestock Services, we help New Zealand Bloodstock and IRT with loading and unloading and stall set-up, things like that. I’m still doing that now as well.”
While still remaining involved in the industry at a distance, Gillies had no intention of coming back to race-riding, but that all changed when he caught up with a couple of familiar faces in Queenstown recently.
“I went down to Shaun Fannin’s stag party for his wedding in Queenstown and was able to catch-up with Shaun, Dean Parker and Aaron Kuru,” he said. “They were talking about where jumps is going in New Zealand, and Shaun kind of egged me into coming back.
“It’s all gone to plan from there, I’m back down in Cambridge riding work for Tony Pike and I went down to school Paul (Nelson)’s horses, then rode nine in total at the point-to-point at Levin.
“I’ve had to drop a lot of weight and it’s come down really well. It’s just a matter of getting it down and maintaining that, when you stop doing something for a while and don’t worry too much about weight, it comes on and you also gain muscle.
“It’s just been getting my mind back into it, I’ve been doing a lot of gym work, two or three hours a day and having one meal.”
Gillies is looking forward to heading back to the races on Sunday, with three rides for Nelson and training partner Corrina McDougal. He will partner Empire State in the Ken Duncan Racing Maiden HDL (3000m), Al’s Red Zed in the Dr John D. Moore Memorial Open Steeplechase (3800m) and The Bambino in The Grant Sweeney Memorial Open Hurdle (3000m).
“I rode The Bambino at the point to point, he went around nicely,” Gillies said. “I’m really looking forward to it.”