Skelton to live in Australia

Press, 26 April 1979, Page 29

Skelton to live in Australia

PA Wellington; One of the best known jockeys in New Zealand, R.

(J. Skelton will join the drift! ,jto Australia. : He has returned from al five-week riding stint in Melbourne and will go back, for good next week. He said yesterday that he would make his headquarters at Mornington. a racing centre about 60km south-east of Melbourne. He will be joined by his I wife. Maureen, his sons. Mark, aged 20, and Craig,, aged 15, and his daughters. Tracey, aged 18, and Jane,; aged 14, as soon as the' younger children have! finished their schooling for the year The opportunity for vastly greater financial rewards, which drew other top New Zealand riders such as G. L. Willets, B. F. Andrews, and B. P. Thomson to Australia, and the likes of N. G. Harris, B. S. Compton, and just this week, W. D. Skelton, to Singapore, is

(Skelton’s main reason for|< i upping stakes. j Although he won only,! ■three minor races on the 1 .last trip, Skelton said that I ‘his earnings had been j (considerably greater than,: (they would have been at ( 'home and expenses had been I, less. i< ! Skelton felt too, that then (more senior jockeys in New (Zealand —- he is in his mid-ji 40s — were being "squeezed! ,(°ut.” I Opportunities were ; .(becoming more and more/ ■ I restricted. The decision to p y allow apprentice jockeys up| •Ito 4.5 kg in the way of' (allowance from fully! , licensed jockeys was "just about the last straw.” He was bound to make ■ . the very best of the years 1 left him as a race-rider. One of a famous family of jockeys, R. J. Skelton has I won more than 1500 races in . his 28 years of riding, , among them five Wellington

Uups, two Auckland Cups,! and the 1976 Melbourne; Cup, on the New Zealand; horse Van der Hum. It is said that he has! ridden more two-mile and 3200 m winners than any other jockey. He has a way with stayers that no jockey of his time has been able to emulate. After an apprenticeship at Orari, near Geraldine, Skelton made Wingatui, in Otago, his headquarters and gained spectacular success which continued after he shifted to Auckland in 1965 His decision to go to Melbourne means that for the first time in 32 years none of the Skelton family will be riding in New Zealand. For 20 years from the mid-19505, R. J. Skelton and his brother. W. D. Skelton, dominated the New Zealand jockeys’ premiership, R J. Skelton winning it nine times.