By Mike Dillon
The pressure is right on Damien Oliver.
Melbourne's champion jockey will be aboard the favourite in the three major group-one races over the Auckland Cup carnival starting on Saturday.
And he has what most would consider a problem - he has not ridden at Ellerslie, New Zealand's most unforgiving racetrack.
It is undulating in the extreme, has unique turns and is a graveyard for jockeys moving wide round the huge bend from the 1100m to the home corner.
Experience can be crucial. But if Oliver is concerned, he is not showing it.
When contacted yesterday morning he was surfing at Melbourne's Bells Beach.
"It's a great way to escape the pressures of racing," he said lazily, as if he would be at the beach on Boxing Day and January 1. Instead he will be under white-hot pressure aboard So Casual in the $350,000 Sleepyhead Derby, Crimson in the $350,000 Blue Star Auckland Cup and Australian mare Dantelah in the $250,000 McDonogh Railway.
But besides surfing, Oliver has not been wasting his time. He has been avidly watching videotapes of So Casual and Crimson and paying particular attention to the Ellerslie layout.
The 26-year-old was at Ellerslie for NZ Bloodstock's recent successful Ready To Run sale and the only other time was during an Auckland sightseeing tour the day after he won the 1995 Wellington Cup on Ed.
"But I haven't walked the course yet, which I'll be doing when I arrive in Auckland on Christmas Day," he said.
Oliver has become a Melbourne racing icon, and the lure of the beach - he began surfing at the age of 12 - will probably see him resist the usual temptation to settle overseas.
"I had a brief stint in Hong Kong, which I enjoyed, but I greatly missed living in Australia. I love the Australian lifestyle."
Spending the middle half of the year sidelined following pelvic surgery has only sharpened his thirst for spring and summer racing.
He has won four Victorian jockeys' premierships riding No 1 for the powerful Lee Freedman stable, where he completed his apprenticeship, but despite the success, he and Freedman have had their moments of discord.
"The Freedmans expect high levels and I demand high levels from myself, so that is always going to be a potentially explosive situation," Oliver said.
And the victories. Nothing, he says, will ever compare with his Melbourne Cup
win on the Freedman-trained Doriemus three years ago.
"The feeling is indescribable. I consider I'd made it as a jockey before I won the Cup, but what it does to you is something special. Nothing comes even close to matching it for an Australian jockey."
Which is why he would especially love to win the Auckland Cup on Crimson. Call it payback for Jim Gibbs.
If Gibbs had not sold Doriemus to Australia, retaining a 10 per cent holding, Oliver would still be looking for his first Melbourne Cup.
"Jim's a great bloke," Oliver said, but he still has no first-hand knowledge of the master Matamata trainer as a professional.
"From what I hear, you couldn't get bigger raps about anyone as a trainer. He's a great horseman and I'm sure Crimson will be 100 per cent on the day."
Like all jockeys, Oliver is accustomed to riding at Boxing Day meetings and he is not disappointed he will be walking the Ellerslie track rather than enjoying a Christmas dinner on Friday.
He will make up for it with what he calls a couple of quiet ones after Saturday's races.
"But I'll be taking it carefully - I don't want Jimmy to think I'm here having a holiday."
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