Above and above right: Promising jockey Craig Newitt made his comeback to racing at Pakenham yesterday, after an 18-month ban, and was busy studying the form with girlfriend and local rider Melissa Taylor.By Brad Kingsbury
PAKENHAM was the venue for the comeback to racing of former star apprentice jockey Craig Newitt yesterday and it only took five races for him to make it back to the winners’ list.
Newitt, who finished his apprenticeship during an 18-month ban, was found guilty of lying to stewards during an inquiry into the run of Leone Chiara on Sandown Classic day in 2003.
However Newitt put that chapter behind him when he booted home odds-on favourite Jeunique in the Class 6 Handicap yesterday. He said he was looking forward to reestablishing himself among the top jockeys in the land.
“I’ve just got to ride winners mate, that’s it,” he said after his unplaced ride in the first race on Comic Opera.
“I definitely lost a heap of friends out of it and my focus is to win those people back. The only way to do it is with trust and riding winners.
“There were people I’ve probably let down who stuck by me, too and I’m very appreciative of that and want to repay them for their loyalty,” he said.
Newitt, who hails from Tasmania but lives in Prahran, spent some of the time off with his family in the southern state and also travelled to Queensland for a break with his girlfriend, Pakenham jockey Melissa Taylor.
While he said that the time passed quickly, he was very keen to get back into regular race riding.
“To be honest, the time was a real pain, but I tried to pass it the best way I could,” he said.
“Melissa and I went up to Queensland for a while just to get away from things and I suppose it did go pretty quickly except for the last month. Being back at the track riding work was the worst because you were able to ride horses in work but not in races. That was pretty frustrating.
“The time off has actually made me keener than before. I was looking forward to the days off that I had then, but all I want to do now is ride,” Newitt said.
Newitt said that weight was not a problem and he presented at Pakenham at 53 kilograms with ease.
A highlight of the early races at Pakenham was the dominant win of Zabonas in the 1770-metre Maiden Plate.
Trained at Cranbourne by Colin Alderson and ridden superbly by comeback jockey Danny Adam, Zabonas hit the lead before the 1000-metre mark and streeted the field to win by six lengths, untouched by the whip.
“It was a one-horse race wasn’t it?” said a chuffed Alderson afterwards.
“We expected him to win his first race like that. He’s taken a long time to find himself in the winner’s circle but he’s always shown a lot of potential.”
Alderson said he would still take it slowly with the horse but, with the confidence of winning a race, he thought success in much better races was possible.
A reasonable midweek crowd attended the meeting, which was held on a track rated good.
