Waikato jockey Gary Grylls has become the 15th rider in New Zealand racing to post 1000 winners.
He posted the four-figure mark in race four at Saturday's Taupo meeting in which he scored aboard the favourite, Omar, for trainer Richard Otto.
The 38-year-old has been riding for 22 years and among his feature wins are the 1986 Auckland Cup on Kerry Lane and the Two Thousand Guineas of the same year with Steely Dan.
Kerry Lane's success came as a boilover for punters, the horse paying $47.50 to win.
There had been some debate over Grylls' career total but his wife, Leigh, checked with New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing and she said it was confirmed last Friday that he was on 999 before this weekend.
Grylls, from Te Awamutu, has kept a record of each of his wins throughout his career and it was almost 100 per cent correct, according to his wife.
"In all that time he only missed one," Leigh Grylls said.
Gary Grylls said he was pleased to reach the milestone.
"It's good to get there," he said.
"Not a lot do it, do they?"
Grylls said that for the future, he would obviously like to ride any major race winner but he would remain happy riding any winners.
"I just want to keep going, keep riding winners," he said.
There were no plans for retirement.
"I hope to keep going for a little while longer yet."
Grylls' biggest season tally came early in his career, when he posted 86 wins for the 1985-86 season. He was fourth on the jockeys' premiership for that season.
Grylls came close to one of his best wins when second aboard Kaapstad Way in this season's Caulfield Cup.
"One closer would have been better but to run second was a thrill," he said.
* Other New Zealand-based jockeys who have ridden 1000 winners or more (riders still in action are denoted with an asterisk and the figures in parenthesis are the riders' total up to the end of last season). - W.D. Skelton (2156), *D. Peake (2079), *L. O'Sullivan (1862), *M. Walsh (1747), R. Skelton (1739), *N. Harris (1618), *J. Collett (1525), W. Broughton (1446), G. Hughes (1276), C. Johnson (1228), G. Phillips (1176), *P. Johnson (1138), L. Ellis (1062), M. Campbell (1060).
- NZPA
Racing: Jockey passes milestone of wins at finishing post
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