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CQ apprentices have a day to remember

4 November 2020

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123659011-10158315172636154-755552133470128056-n.jpgBy Tony McMahon

In what has been a life-changing week for members of Australia’s younger jockeying ranks, the trend continued on Tuesday at the Gladstone’s Ferguson Park racecourse.

Two apprentice jockeys - Rockhampton’s Cody Collis, 17 and Caloundra’s Jake Molloy, 20 - both will remember Melbourne Cup Day 2020 as the day they rode their first race winners.

Cody “Chip” Collis (top right) only commenced race riding last Saturday at Yeppoon but on Tuesday he was in sparkling form, winning on both his rides – Exocet Rocket and Manilla Miss for Rockhampton trainer Kevin Miller.

Miller went one better than his young jockey, claiming a treble on the day by also winning with exciting Spill The Beans restricted class sprinter Isis Brumby, with Sonja Wiseman aboard.

The trainer’s only other starter at Gladstone - the maidener Rock’ N’ Blitz - seemed to have the 1194-metre Maiden Plate all parcelled up until Jake Molloy’s mount Barbican arrived on the scene.

The Bevan Johnson-trained Barbican overwhelmed the leader in the closing stages to win by a length and provide Molloy with the unforgettable thrill of achieving that first race success.

Indentured to the Sunshine Coast’s Paul Jenkins, Jake Molloy comes from a racing family with his mum Leanne Henry and father Mick Molloy having been successful jockeys in Central Western New South Wales.

In that district, the Molloy name is etched in jockeying folklore as another relative, Harry “Matey” Molloy held legendary status.

Matey won the 1964 Doncaster Handicap at Randwick on Persian Puzzle as well as the 1963 Hotham Handicap on River Seine.

“I just hope I can carry on the family name with more winners to come,” Jake Molloy said.

A late starter to jockeying due to a successful career as a boxer which saw him win three Queensland Flyweight Titles, Jake (bottom right) made his race riding debut at Alpha on October 3.

Unlike Jake’s counterpart, young Brisbane-born but Chinchilla-raised Cody Collis has no real background in racing.

“My dad Russ was a keen punter and because I was so short, he suggested to me one day that I should think about becoming a jockey,” Collis said.

123245257-10158315228401154-3639182836130841939-o.jpgIt seems that Cody - apprenticed to Rockhampton’s Fred Smith at Callaghan Park - has made a fortuitous career choice.

This Saturday, Chip takes his saddle to Moranbah races where he has a full book of rides.

Although they did not say it, it is a racing certainty that both Cody Collis and Jake Molloy would have been inspired by the achievements of Koby Jennings and Jye McNeill this week.

Jennings, who was at one stage in 2012 based in Rockhampton as an apprentice with Lyle Rowe, won last Saturday’s $7.5 million Golden Eagle at Rosehill on the Godolphin mare Colette.

On Tuesday, Jye McNeill claimed the $7.75 million Group 1 Melbourne Cup on Irish trainer Joseph O’Brien’s Twilight Payment.

Both Jennings and McNeill pocketed over $200,000 in winning riding percentages and each honed their race riding skills on country racetracks just as Collis and Molloy are in the process of doing.

The lads at Gladstone collected $250 in individual race winning percentages but in an industry built on dreams but reliant on dedication and sheer hard work, who knows where their skills will take them – after all, hope springs eternal.