Racing: Veteran has plenty of gas in tank

Noel Harris rides Pulcinella to a clear victory in the Avondale Guineas on Saturday. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

Yes, we've seen 50-year-old jockeys riding winners in New Zealand before.

But never with Noel Harris' judgment and fearlessness.

And none were even born with Harris' extraordinary balance.

When we've seen veteran jockeys riding we've always had the vague impression they're there almost because they have to be, even though financially they almost always don't have to be.

There is near enough to an air of resentment about their demeanour. They always look like they want to be somewhere else.

Harris couldn't be happier being out there competing in New Zealand's biggest races.

And he showed that when he poked out his tongue and waved his whip going across the line an easy winner of Saturday's $70,000 SkyCity Avondale Guineas on little Cambridge filly Pulcinella.

The tongue - his native Maori pukana - was not pre-planned.

Harris was so ecstatic to be winning on Pulcinella after a month's suspension that the emotion got the better of him.

Not that he cares or is apologising.

"For years racing has been too controlled. As a jockey you had to keep your head down," he said.

"The world has changed, the public demand more entertainment.

"Look at Glen Boss, he's an actor. The public loved what he did around Makybe Diva.

"Shane Dye used to cry when he won. Everyone loves that sort of thing.

"People have slated Michael [Walker] for sticking his tongue out, but as a Maori it's not being offensive, it's about mana.

"When Michael came along it was one of the very best things for racing. The racing industry is starting to loosen up like the rest of society."

Harris speaks the way he rides - straight up.

You ask the nearly 51-year-old [his birthday is next month] how long he will continue riding and he quickly says: "For 118 more winners."

That's the number of victories it will take to elevate him into the exclusive 2000 winners club in New Zealand, the only members of which are Lance O'Sullivan, David Peake and Bill Skelton.

"I ride around 50 winners a season, so I reckon about another three years."

His 1000th winner in 1990 was a sad occasion because it came only days after the death of his mother Daphne.

Watch Noel Harris on raceday and you see someone in their element - always prepared to talk to the press and to owners and trainers and, most important of all, always with a joke at hand.

And he can take a joke.

Last Thursday week Harris, and most of the public, thought he had won the group one $200,0000 Levin Classic on the fast-finishing Shikoba and gave a victory salute with his whip as he crossed the line, only to find he'd been beaten by a nose by Wahid.

He knew he was in for a ribbing when he walked into the Ellerslie jockeys' room two days later, but he handled it with style.

Nobody goes through a long career without a downturn and the Noel Harris of today is unrecognisable from the burnt-out, disillusioned jockey of a decade or more ago.

"I split up with my wife, my weight was stuffed and I couldn't focus. I was thinking about giving up."

Moving from the Central Districts to Matamata saved his career.

There are few trainers now that do not have enormous respect for Harris' judgment.

He is not only a good rider with astonishing balance, he can tell a trainer an awful lot after a race.

Pulcinella's trainer, Don Sellwood, knows he couldn't have anyone better on his small filly. Although barely 15 hands tall, Pulcinella is quite strong across the back, but is still better off with a beautifully balanced jockey.

A lot of things came into Harris' mind in the final 50m of Saturday's Guineas.

Foremost was the fact that he had spent a month on the sideline after being suspended for easing Pulcinella down too early and costing her third place in the Soliloquy Stakes at Ellerslie.

"Things were starting to mount up. She was a certainty beaten when third first-up this season at Gisborne, then that incident happened at Ellerslie.

"I got suspended for it then had to watch her win at Te Rapa when Allan Peard rode her, then again when she ran in the 1000 Guineas at Riccarton.

"The thought of watching her winning a group one race while sitting on the couch was almost too much. I thought things are just not meant to happen for me and this filly."

Pulcinella, under Hayden Tinsley, finished fourth and set herself up for a big effort on Saturday.

Harris couldn't believe his luck.

"When we straightened I looked inside me and saw Crusoe poking through and thought he was just going to run past. Then I looked again and he wasn't there and my filly was fair bolting.

"It's a long time since I've been on a horse travelling so well and there was nothing coming at us. In that class you're almost always doing it tough, even when you win.

"I'm not saying she's as good as Poetic Prince, but he was just about the last horse I was on that felt that way.

"It felt so good I was like: 'Bring it on'."

Don Sellwood will aim Pulcinella towards the $100,000 Eight Carat Classic at Ellerslie on Boxing Day, but will make no plans beyond that race.

Most horses of Pulcinella's size can cope with racing against their age, but often struggle when they get to handicap racing as a 4-year-old.

Harris is not certain Pulcinella fits into that category. "I rode Fountaincourt and he was small and you would have said he wouldn't be able to carry weight, but he could. He performed well at weight-for-age.

"This filly is a similar sort."

Being the senior rider in the jockeys' room, Harris says he gets approaches from riders from time to time asking what to do about a slump in form.

"I tell them two things - just wait, because your luck will change, and not to try too hard. If you try too hard, that's when it falls to bits.

"I tell them to just let it happen."

Harris has been lucky with the one element that can drive jockeys to an early grave - weight problems.

"He can ride comfortably at 53kg and for a top ride at the carnivals when the big money is on the line, he can do considerably better.

He got down to a remarkable 49.5kg to ride former New Zealand galloper Falkirk in Australia .

"Though that's something you do only every two years or so.

"The pakeha in me is saying, give it a go, and the Maori in me says, don't you dare ever do that again."

Going strong

* Matamata jockey Noel Harris is approaching 51 and is riding in the best form of his long career.

* Harris received an enormous thrill from winning Saturday's $70,000 SkyCity Avondale Guineas on Pulcinella.

* He says not since Poetic Prince has he been on a horse travelling as easily as Pulcinella was in the home straight.