Racing: Landing a winner rekindles thrill of raceday riding

Jim Collett declared he hasn't ruled out the possibility of returning to race riding on a fulltime basis after landing his first winner in three years at Tauranga yesterday.

Collett rode the $1.80 favourite Zaria to victory in the highweight and immediately afterwards could not remember his last winner.

But the man they call Jimmy Wallet remembers he backed it and it paid $14.

"It was at Avondale and it was trained by the O'Sullivans - and I had something on it."

That sharp edge at the coalface of racing is the reason Collett has made something of a comeback from crippling knee injury and pain.

Collett is so highly regarded as a judge of when a horse is ready to win, the powerful Moroney stable at Matamata have employed him as a consultant to ride the occasional horse in training.

That led him to have one raceday ride on a Moroney runner a couple of weeks ago and after a further one or two he landed Zaria a winner yesterday for Te Awamutu trainer Robert Priscott. He said the fact that Zaria was such a hot favourite and that he expected it to win took away a bit of the thrill.

"It wasn't a huge buzz, but it felt pretty good. When you've ridden a lot you never really lose it."

Encouraged by the response he's had, Collett will press on and see where he ends up.

He made a similar type of comeback last year, but says he undermined that by not managing it properly.

"I rode in two races then went to Singapore for two weeks. When I came back I rode three at the trials after riding trackwork that morning and it was too much for my knee.

"I'll just piece it along and see what happens - I'm riding Cog Hill at Te Rapa on Saturday."

Cog Hill, trained by his brother Richard, is one of New Zealand's best metric milers.

"I'll only be accepting one, or at the most two, rides per raceday. I can't ride lighter than 56kg at the moment and I won't attempt to get that down until I know whether my knee will stand up and that I'm confident I can successfully lower my weight. Hayden Tinsley rode a lot of winners at 56kg or more before he got his weight right down."

Collett has not been idle. He works in real estate in Matamata as well as his position as a Moroney stable consultant.

"I've got plenty to do."