Ready to take the big leap as a Sydney regular: Apprentice jockey Jett Stanley celebrates riding Healing Oasis to a win at Rosehill Gardens last month. Photo: Getty
Jett Stanley’s old boss and housemate, trainer Mitchell Beer, isn’t expecting to see the 19-year-old apprentice back at his stables and expects him to join Sydney’s golden generation of apprentices in the next year.
Apprentice Jett Stanley returns on Healing Oasis after his Sydney winner at Rosehill last month.Credit: Getty
In a season where Tyler Schiller, Dylan Gibbons and Zac Lloyd have proven the next generation can match the best in Sydney, Stanley arrives with a well-known family name and a record that had many Sydney stables looking at him. Stanley is the son of Caulfield Cup-winning rider Brent and has found his way to Annabel Neasham’s stable after starting his career in Perth and then moving back east with Beer.
″There was never any doubt about his riding ability. He is a very good rider; we just had to get him ready for the next step,″ Beer said. ″It was learning a bit about life and what is expected of jockeys these days. I knew I was going to be a stop on Jett’s way to bigger things. He got so quickly to the end of his country claim that we were still working on a few things.
″He picks up things quickly and gets what is require, and has got better at feedback and riding work, which are important. He was ready for the next step and you can see that now in his riding, it was the right time to go.
“I would expect he would stay on up there and ride plenty of winners. I just hope I can get him for a Highway when I need him.”
Like high-flying apprentices Lloyd and Gibbons, Stanley comes from racing stock and the tall lad, who walks around at 50 kilos, always had his eyes set on riding. He just had to convince his parents.
“It was always my plan,” Stanley said. “Dad was always giving me other options, but once he saw me ride trackwork and the love I had for it, dad kind of just let me do what I wanted with the racing.
“Mum was trying to hold me back for a little bit longer, but school wasn’t my thing, and I was quite good at it. But I didn’t love it as much as I do racing.”
Stanley was disappointed not to be accepted into the Victorian apprentice intake and had to move to Perth to start his career with leading trainers Grant and Alana Williams. But opportunity to ride every day brought him back to east. He carries the expectation from his family ties but also has built a record that suggests he has the talent to make it in Sydney, and he is getting a chance in the winter.
There is pressure to keep up with his peers. Lloyd, Gibbons and Schiller have established themselves at the top of the jockeys premiership and raised the expectation on the next apprentice. And there is still plenty to learn for Stanley, who has ridden 86 winners and has been riding for just over two years. Neasham appears the ideal choice for the 19-year-old to develop with her big stable and work ethic an example for him to follow.
“It has been a pretty big change, but luckily, I have been able to step up with the support of Annabel and find my feet,” Stanley said. “It is good to team up with her as a young jockey and I feel like we’re we’ll be able to go through together if I can ride well.”
Stanley is striking at 30 per cent rate for his new boss since arriving and has impressed outside stables as well and has been given the ride on flying Malkovich by Bjorn Baker tomorrow. However, the spine of his book is from Neasham as he reunites with his city winner Naval College and Healing Oasis and takes the reins last-start winner Plundering at Randwick.
“Healing Oasis is going around with 49 kilos on her back after my claim, so we are getting really well down in the weights,” Stanley said. “She is getting better all the time.”
“Naval College is up in grade, so gets down a bit in the weights but gets out in trip [to 2000m] which he is looking for.
“Plundering won on the same day as Naval College and his work has been really good since. It would be good to get another winner for the boss.
“I was also Chief Conductor last time at Wyong and he is ready to come to the city. We just got left alone in front and he won well and he could do something similar on the weekend.”
Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
