“I was riding in Victoria and couldn’t even get decent country rides, let alone in the city,” says the 22-year-old.
“I wasn’t riding enough so I wasn’t fit and it was a bit of a cycle and I really thought about giving up.
“Brad Taylor [NZ racing administrator who used to work in Victoria] advised me to come over here and give it a go and it has been the best thing I have ever done.
“I have had really good support, started by guys like Tony Pike, and after Hastings it has grown and grown.
“I am getting on horses who can win these good races and that makes a huge difference.”
The courage to make the move has Cartwright thinking of himself as a quasi-Kiwi now and the good news is he isn’t considering returning home any time soon.
His three winners yesterday could hardly be more different, with Poetic Champion the speed freak three-year-old who Cartwright admits is his favourite horse.
“I love riding him. He is so fast and the first really good horse I got on over here,” Cartwright said yesterday.
“He was good today, beating some smart sprinters and Tony [Pike, trainer] has options with him.”
They include both the Railway and/or the Almanzor Trophy on Karaka Millions night, with Pike suggesting the latter race, restricted to three-year-olds, is the more likely target.
Cartwright got the ride inch-perfect on Bourbon Empress for another trainer who has been a big supporter, Stephen Marsh, and he rates the four-year-old mare a Group 1 horse in the making.
But there is something immensely satisfying for jockeys about riding a major staying Cup winner and Cartwright loved bringing up his treble on Son Of Sun, co-trained by one of New Zealand’s great jockeys of recent years, Grant Cooksley.
While he is still quite new to the big time, Son Of Sun looked an Auckland Cup horse in the making with his huge strides in the closing stages of the QEII Cup, his sixth win from 18 starts.
“He still has so much improvement in him,” says Cartwright.
“He is already a Cups horse and will only get better with more racing at this level.”
The win resulted in Son Of Sun being promoted to $10 equal favourite for the Auckland Cup in March, a price he shares with stablemate Trust In You, who returned from the Melbourne Cup with an eye-catching sixth in the Rich Hill Mile today.
That gives Cooksley and training partner Bruce Wallace a huge one-two punch in the major staying races remaining in the northern summer.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
