It’s not the sort of line you are expecting - unless you are talking to Luke “Stumpy” (he lost half a finger in a racing accident) Williams.
“The first six months in jail were awesome,” he would say, even with some hint of enthusiasm.
“After that, it got a bit boring.”
And the first thing he did after getting out: “I got me some speed and shot me self up again.”
Which is to suggest Williams is some character and with some story to tell. It’s been shared a little on his redemption road, a Jericho Cup win and a famous post-race interview for example, but as he told me, “You haven’t really heard it all yet.”
So there are the chapters on jail, god and religion (no, he didn’t find that inside), the drugs, a troublesome upbringing (“I went to 13 different primary schools, reckon I had four or five stepdads, some nice, some not no nice”) but mostly - in the end - it comes down to horses and belief, and not surprisingly a fair bit of raw counselling.
“I’m absolutely blessed,” he says, and you can sense the additive nature in how that is expressed in the positive way and a message joyfully share.
Stumpy now holds a dual licence, jockey/trainer, and last Wednesday at Murray Bridge he used both to land that first winner – Honour The Skills – a maiden on a heavy 10.
He’s 49, been in and out of the game since starting an apprentice with Peter Healey at Mornington, and now says: “mate I’m only just beginning and I’ve got a long way to go, things are looking up. I’ve got some serious carrots being dangled in front of me, if I keep my head screwed on.”
And it is that head that is filled with tales that would regale a script-writer. “There has been some bad decision making along the way,” is how he would summise it. Read on.
For Williams, it was his mother that introduced him to horses, there was a riding school and Epping and traipsing around the Richmond Flats, Clifton Hill and Carlton before he was 10 that moulded his young life.
It wasn’t school, but a palomino he got in grade four, that got him was hooked. But it was to be a different kind of hook that would speed bump a career of ambition in the saddle.
“I was a shit of a kid, went through Jim Marconi and Gary Carson, went down to Tassie and Charlie Cogging, Raymon Goldsmith but eventually it was Grant Dalziel, he was the father figure I never had, we still talk all the time,” he said.
“He fine-tuned my skills but he’d say ‘ how can you do this so naturally when you are a drug addict, he’d ask how many cones I’d had before riding work and shake his head.”
Dalziel knows the story too well. “I had Adam Bodey and Mick Barlow with me and I was training for owners who loved a punt. This kid turned up and I couldn’t get rid of him.
“He was a natural horseman, not gifted, just had a lovely nature with them, he’d work the babies all day, he’d call me boss, but with the drugs came depression and the wrong side of the street,” Dalziel said.
“I remember everything,” says Williams without any hint of self-pity or anyone else to blame.
“I was a very strong addict for a lot of years, started with marihuana, then the party drugs by the time I was 20, ecstasy, heroin and speed that engulfed me at the time.
“I remember meeting a card player, an old hippie, I was probably 21 and we were having a few cones and I thought he was talking shit, I look back now and should have listened to him. It did all happen and that’s my life, quite remarkable.”
“That’s why you see gaps and breaks in my career, for short and long periods, I’d just go off radar.”
None more so than two years in jail for drug offences when he was 28. Just remember that “awesome” line and drop it in here.
“I got on with everybody inside, I was happy, clean and sober, I met new people, it was like a boys camp for men, I’d get along with the Chinese the Koori’s, the Ruskies.
“I’d keep fit, trained, walk laps with (now trainer) Frankie Stockdale, did a lot of courses, got a kitchen hands license but eventually got bored.”
Remember that getting out and shooting up line now.
“When I got out I married the wrong person and then I realised I needed to get away and get clean and within a month I was.”
Williams contacted jockey’s mentor Des O’Keeffe and Dalziel and ended up at Warrnambool living in a room from trainer Mark Primmer, describing it as a turning point and the start of the climb back.
But he endlessly recounts this is all underpinned by his faith in God, borne out during intensive counselling sessions to help him be re-licenced.
“I knew God when I was 16, but what I learned most was how much baggage I was carrying. The counselling unpacked everything.
“Drugs were only the symptom of my problems, they weren’t the issues, I’d be running away from everything, always on the move, but no matter what you do, and no matter where you are, as a child of god he still loves you.
“It was about bettering yourself to be like him, I had so much childhood trauma and shit that was haunting me until I could admit I was fucked up, I just never believed there was a rock bottom,” Williams said.
Williams is not a god thumper, but it’s a constant part of the conversation “bro” for sure, more a crutch that has seen a life teetering become one being fulfilled.
Only recently he gave up alcohol. “Drinking is part of the culture of racing, the problem is that it is legal so there is no stigma. To me it changed my personality, I’d known that all of my life, more so than the drugs.
“But I did a course, knew the problem, walked out and drank for three days and never since. I just can’t explain it, like a weight lifted off my shoulders,” Williams said.
Now life is more structured. He admits he’d never lived in the same place for two years until he turned 35. Now he is based in Warrnambool with wife of seven years Brooke (“my rock, she is due a honeymoon by the way”) with daughters Kaylee and Ruby while there are three other Williams’ foals, eldest daughter Taylor is married to Queensland jockey Dan Griffin, and sons Kayden, Brodie.
The now daily routine is as hectic as a chat, we talk while breaking-in a youngster and re-training a troublesome one.
It is always a 3am start and riding work for Tom Dabernig, then a couple for John Brooks then home for his own, a mix of 12, race-horses and pre-trainers, including one bought online (by Dubious) the other day for $600, though it cost $2600 to transport to The Bool and turned up looking like I Wish I Win as a foal but “it moves beautiful, I’ll get the farrier to look after it.”
“I’ve got an awesome life, if I didn’t get paid to do this stuff, I’d be paying some else. I’m just so blessed.
His motto: “Never Give Up.”
“I haven’t won a Group 1 race yet, I’m aiming to win a Melbourne Cup, I only need the one horse.”
Well it’s some jump from a maiden on a heavy 10 at Murray Bridge to a group 1 and the first Tuesday in November.
Thankfully Stumpy has faith, drive and boundless energy. Could you imagine the post-race interview?
