If you are going to hit your target and win the national jockey’s title with more winners than the other 811 registered hoops in the country, you need to shoot straight, not just all season, but especially in that premiership month.
That’s what Aaron Bullock, he via Tumut, via Singleton, some dark days shunted off to working on the Hunter Expressway, then many a long road and longer travels did, with 38 winners in July to run over and pass James Orman to nail 208 winners in a break-out season (and with a stunning strike rate of 26 percent!)
Following the footsteps of his heroes past like Robert Thompson and Greg Ryan, Bullock relentlessly chased down the title he craved and openly spruiked and eventually he walked the talk with a cancer stricken Nan by his side for inspiration.
And to celebrate. A few days in the snow with bride to be, fellow jockey Amelia Denby (they will marry on Victoria Oaks day, hopefully after he wins the $3m Big Dance on Akasawa) at Rosehill on Melbourne Cup day.
A new season opening winner at Scone on Sunday, and then the chance of rare clear air until Thursday (Newcastle) and Bullock, happier to “keep in my own lane” than do much media, was off to Max Howlett’s 1200 acre farm today at Gowrie near Singleton for some “me time.”
“I’ve got my gun licence and love to go for a shoot with my dogs, maybe a bit of camping, that’s my downtime,” said Bullock of which there isn’t much obviously.
“Wild dogs, rabbits, foxes, that’s what we are after,” said Bullock, not claiming to be a sharpshooter, but more enjoying the rare experience of being out of the bath losing that couple of kilos he does every day before he drives hours for his real passion, riding winners.
But there is a real reason its Max Howlett’s cattle farm though first. It was Todd Howlett that gave a young Bullock an introduction to horses when just a novice 16-year-old, even though he’d never ridden one.
“I was good friends with Max’s son and it was he who said I should become a jockey because of my size and Todd was the man to help me,” he said.
“I’d never ridden a horse but I loved animals growing up in Tumut,” Bullock said.
Loving animals and becoming a champion jockeys are distant links and a longer journey but one that Bullock is and has been firmly focussed on, champion of the off-main street punters and those who support his quest for the best.
“I still can’t believe what I have achieved,” Bullock says.
“Sure I set my sights on it but to think of the hard work to achieve it, I don’t think it will sink in, not until maybe those award ceremonies.”
“I wanted it, but it is still hard to comprehend it.”
But Bullock knew that the focussed dedication, through the season and especially in the last month, required some family therapy once the job was done, with fiancé Amelia, hence the snow break and the shooting trip.
“Otherwise I’d have ended up divorced before we were married. It’s been one hell of a year, I just tried to limit the distractions and get out and do what I love and that’s riding winners."
“It’s not about the money, never has been, my biggest thrill was going home and riding a winner at Tumut, and it was non-TAB on Boxing Day, I had the whole family there and friends.
“I went and got Nan out of the hospital and took her to the races that day and for Christmas. With the misses, Nan has kept me going this season. She’s been battling cancer and had some serious operations, she’s in her 80’s and every time I thought I was having a bad day or doing it tough, a thought of her, puts everything in perspective."
“I’m glad to say she is still here and hope she can stay through to the wedding.”
To think Bullock’s previous seasons had seen tallies of 92, 106, 101, a best 107 in 2017/18. But 208!
“I set a goal but had to come from a long way back, I think James (Orman) was maybe 40 or so in front of well into the season,” Bullock said.
“We went back to New Zealand to see the missus’ family in August and it wasn’t until September until I got the ball rolling.
“Then I had my brother’s wedding, so there was a buck’s party and that which brought things to a halt to some extent.”
Bullock’s brother Brad is an identical twin (18 minutes older). Well if you count 70kg as identical – “we do look the same from behind,” he will say, indicating the constant weight battles without really saying so.
“Then we moved into a new house in February, we had to do up the old house and get ready for the move, but all the time I was focussed on keeping my body, my weight and my health in check, and then I really knuckled down.”
Which means rising at 5am, walking the dogs and reading the paper before two hours in the bath sweating off those two to three kilos required daily, that starts a 15 hour day before trying to get a minimum six hours sleep a night and going at it again.
“It’s like a routine I got focussed on, blank everything else out, put the phone away and do the things I need to do to do this job that I love.”
“It was game on the last month and I took my mind and my body to places I never thought possible, but the moral of the story is that the easiest part is the riding, I never lost the belief I could do it, once my weight was right, everything else falls into place,” he says, mentioning that giving up cigarettes, once and then after a stumble, again with the uses of patches and tablets, forever has been a key lifestyle change.
The other being a new car. So what does the champion rider with over $5m in Stakes for the season get around all these kilometres in?
Well he had a Toyota Aurion and after 650,000kms he went all out on a hybrid Toyota Camry, that now already with over 100,000 kms clocked up. (He still has an old Toyota Hi-Lux he keeps in good nick that he uses for the farm – oh what a feeling indeed)
The spoils of success are not for Bullock. “Mate I still get around in the same clothes I wore three years ago, I am going shooting in the hunting clobber I bought ages ago in New Zealand, money is not for me."
“Before I got into riding, I was running. It was the most competitive thing I’d done, apart from a bit of footy, but that’s a group sport, in riding, you are on your own and that’s how I like it.”
Like any of us, Bullock admits he has been without flaws but can proudly say “I’ve never made the same mistake twice”, he has always held himself accountable for his actions, but is now only driven by the next day and another winner.
“I’ve learned the hard way, got punished. I don’t regret things, but have learned life lessons, I knew what I was doing but am all the better for it.”
Tough but fair, until it comes to Nan.
“She is my biggest inspiration without any doubt. She’s been dealt a bad hand with her cancer and has met it head on.
“She will message me every raceday and if her fingers are struggling she will ring me, she has kept pushing me to be honest, she’s not getting any better but I know whatever I am dealing with, she has much more on her plate and I want to do it for her.”
So Bullock 2023/24 and for Nan. “I want to break (Willie) Pike’s Australian record (238).
The only distraction will be a Thai honeymoon with Amelia, which the fastidious Bullock has already planned with activities to keep busy and focussed on the task.
“You know what my motto is? Never give up, get knocked down plenty of times for sure, but keep focussed and bouncing back. I love what I’m doing and wouldn’t swap it for anything else.”
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