At an age when most of his contemporaries find it tiring enough playing snakes and ladders with their grandchildren, 64-year-old Aussie riding legend Neville Wilson put the younger generation to shame when upsetting the fixed odds by stealing the show at Wornambool on Monday afternoon riding a brilliant treble on the country card.
Wilson’s sporting longevity is already the stuff of Australian racing legend, and he reminded race fans in no uncertain fashion that he intends to boot home plenty more winners before he reaches for the Zimmer frame, by kicking off with victory on the Colin Chandler-trained Akhafacet in the Southern Financial Group Maiden over 1400m, before following up in the 1000m maiden sprint on board Geoff Duffy’s Raise Your Banner.
With the Wornambool regulars already scratching their collective heads at the conditioning of a man who was riding winners 20 years before some of his Monday rival jockeys were born, Wilson stepped up again to present plenty of interest for those who like to compare odds during racing by completing a famous treble, guiding Four Legs Good to victory for Trevor Murphy.
It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that Wilson is the oldest professional jockey in the world at present. Most riders hang up their boots in their mid-40s or maybe last as long as 50. Even the mighty ‘Long Fellow’ Lester Piggott called it a day at the age of 57, not long after coming out of ‘enforced’ retirement to famously partner Royal Academy to victory in the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Mile for Vincent O’Brien.
Wilson is already acknowledged as extra-special by his Aussie contemporaries, the five-time Group 1 winner who has ridden more than 2000 career winners, having been recognised in recent years with the presentation of the Neville Wilson Medal, an annual award given to the winner of the Victorian Country Jockeys’ Championship.
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