Heywood launches winter raid with winner

By Jordan Gerrans

Heavyweight hoop Nick Heywood believes guiding a winner for old mate Allan Chau at Beaudesert on Saturday will be a perfect launching pad for his northern winter riding trip. 

Usually based at Goulburn, Heywood has headed north for a stint to escape the cold weather and will be based at the Gold Coast. 

He has been busy riding trackwork for local leading trainer Adam Campton over the last week while he has also helped out Kurt Goldman, who also has links to Goulburn in New South Wales. 

The 30-year-old snagged his maiden Sunshine State victory on Saturday when the Chau-prepared Flying Bat won around the Beaudesert circuit by more than four lengths in a dominant display. 

Heywood is hopeful the winner will get the ball rolling in a positive direction for his winter Queensland sojourn.

“Obviously, the carnival up here will be over in a month or so and that could be the time where I can capitalise,” the jockey said.

“Hopefully then I can kick some goals in. 

"The plan was to come up a little bit later in the year.

“But, after speaking with my manager Drew Smith, who is involved at Matt Dunn’s stable, we decided that I would come up now.

“Drew thinks it is a good time to come up now and hopefully I can pick up a few rides around the Northern Rivers as well as in Queensland.”

Heywood is open to staying longer at the Gold Coast if results go his way. He rode in trials at the venue last Tuesday, as well. 

As well as his Queensland triumph on Saturday, Heywood picked up a Northern Rivers victory on the way up, scoring aboard Too Hot To Torque for Dunn at Port Macquarie on Monday of last week. 

Heywood has also been aided by Gold Coast broadcaster Mitch Manners in getting his foot in the door with a few stables after landing in the area. 

The jockey was pleased his first Queensland winner came for Chau, who he has known since the trainer’s riding days earlier in his racing career.

Heywood took five rides at Beaudesert on Saturday and waited until the lucky last race to score for Chau. 

It was a relatively simple equation for the hoop aboard Flying Bat as the five-year-old gelding led for most of the trip and went on to win by more than four lengths in Benchmark 60 Handicap grade over 1650 metres. 

“Chau rode down our way earlier in his career and we were joking before the race that it would be funny if I could win one for him,” he said.

“It was quite easy. It is a tight little track.

“It was a pretty stock-standard race on Saturday.

"I went straight to the front, rolled along early, controlled the race through the middle stages and kept building from there.

“It was good to give him a winner because we've known each other for a while.

“The horse ran well as he was back to an easy grade race meeting.

“But, you still want to get the job done and he did.

“It didn't feel like he picked up that well, but he picked up and ended up winning by like four lengths or so.”

Heywood likes to keep his weight around 57 or 58kg, but can go lighter for feature races. 

The jockey has more than 700 winners to his name after more than a decade of race riding, with 28 of those coming at city level in Sydney.