Young flat rider Tom Marquand had a fantastic season last year in Britain and during the off season went even better when going over to Australia and now due to the Coronavirus outbreak he has moved back down under to continue riding with British racing suspended.
The jockey has found himself “pretty fortunate” to be still riding in the sport with most countries putting a ban n racing until a later date but in Australia they are still racing behind closed doors.
After a successful winter in Australia he came back over to England for the lead up to the flat season but went back to Australia late last week, enjoying a Group Three success at Rosehill on Saturday.
(Credit At The Races) Marquand is looking forward to some big rides this weekend and has said: “I’ve been pretty fortunate with timing – the stars have sort of aligned a little bit.
“The day I flew over, 24 hours later Australia introduced a two-week quarantine to anyone who comes in on an international flight, so I dodged that. And obviously now, we’ve had the pretty devastating news that English racing is called off for the foreseeable future.
🤯 Ride of the day from @TomMarquand..
— The Winners Enclosure (@TWEnclosure) June 26, 2019
50/1 shot Magic Shuffle was lost out the back as they swung for home, yet somehow managed to win the race by a half length!
Just watch..
Unbelievable! 👏🏼
📹 Credit: @AtTheRaces pic.twitter.com/O5GmuVIqE7
“Obviously I speak with Hollie a lot. Waking up to the news of racing being cancelled, I was pretty surprised, (but) I suppose the public’s health is the main priority and the stress the NHS is under is paramount to what happens.
“We’re a very large industry and there’ll be a lot of people to support. Hopefully it’s for the best long-term for everyone.”
The youngster does a lot of his riding for trainer William Haggas and he sits on his horses this weekend down under with Wolferton Stakes winner at Royal Ascot, Addeybb bidding for Group One glory in Saturday’s Ranvet Stakes and stablemate Young Rascal goes for the Group Three Manion Cup on the same card.
Marquand added: “Addeybb has got extremely good form – and to be getting a strongly-fancied ride in a Group One for William Haggas aboard is a pretty incredible position to be in.
“I went over and saw both horses the other day and they look in great order and seem to have travelled pretty well.
“Both horses will definitely go with cut in the ground and they’ve both got the class to be here.
“The QEII in April is the plan for Addeybb and Young Rascal is aiming for the Sydney Cup on the same day.”