WELLINGTON - A 16-year-old record held by former New Zealand jockey Shane Dye was beaten yesterday when boom apprentice Michael Walker rode the winner of the opening race at the Marlborough Racing Club's meeting at Blenheim.
Victory for the favourite Miss Eltoe in a 1000m maiden race provided Walker with his 79th win for the season.
Dye's record for a New Zealand apprentice in their first full season of riding was 78 wins. It was set in the 1983-84 season.
Walker, 16, is on target to set a three-figure total for the new record with another 21/2 months remaining in the season which concludes on July 31.
Walker not only broke the record but to date has a better strike rate than the now Sydney based Dye, one of Australia's most successful jockeys.
Dye's 78 wins came from 800 mounts, according to the New Zealand Turf Register. That represents a strike rate of a winner for every 10.25 rides.
Walker has racked up his 79 wins from 676 mounts for a strike rate of 8.55 rides for each win. His feat is all the more creditable in that he only started riding the day before this season started.
Dye, who was apprenticed to top trainer Dave O'Sullivan at Matamata, had ridden 22 winners before he had started his first full season of riding.
Walker, apprenticed to Allan Sharrock at New Plymouth, rode his first winner at Waverley on August 26. The horse was Awesome Heights at odds of 35-1.
By the middle of November last year, Walker had ridden 14 winners. By the middle of November last year, Walker had ridden 14 wins and a newspaper article described his target of 40 wins for the season as ambitious.
Walker has achieved double the target with months to spare.
- NZPA
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