There is nothing unusual about top jockeys flying here, there, and everywhere these days – Tom Marquand flew 40,000 miles in the first two months of this year – but there aren’t many who could fly themselves. Michael Dee can, though.
We’re not talking about the big long-haul passenger jets, like the one that will take him back to Melbourne when his current two-month stint riding in Japan ends in a week or so. Dee flies something altogether smaller and nippier: helicopters.
“I have had a helicopter licence for 18 months now,” the jockey tells Idol Horse. “It was just something that I was interested in and I don’t really know how it came about but it was something that I was quite fascinated in.”
The first spark of interest was when the New Zealander moved to Melbourne to ride and he saw the choppers at the Spring Carnival. That planted an idea in his mind.
“I saw the helicopters flying in and out of the racecourse and I thought, ‘far out, that is awesome, I’d love to be able to fly one of them,’ but I never actually thought that it would be possible,” he says.
He looked into it and found that was.
“At the time I had a mate doing his fixed wing licence and he was learning to fly a plane,” he continues. “He was at the same aerodrome that I learnt from. He mentioned that I was at the helicopter school, so I went and had a trial flight, which was pre-learning and just went from there.
“I must say, I thought it would be quicker and easier to get the licence than it was. Riding each week just made it pretty difficult and took a lot longer than I anticipated but I got there in the end.”
Dee, 29, has had the buzz of riding thoroughbreds in more than 8,000 races, winning more than 900 times; he has won Group 1 majors including the Caulfield Cup, Blue Diamond Stakes, Victoria Derby, and Australian Guineas; he has competed in Hong Kong and Japan as well as Australia and New Zealand. But flying a helicopter has its own buzz.
“It definitely is a rush to fly a helicopter,” Dee said. “It is like anything, if you drove a Lamborghini or Ferrari for the first time and you’d get that rush, and (that feeling) when you pop out of the car.
“When I land, and after I have taken a friend for a joy-flight,” he adds, “they see how cool it is and for me that is pretty awesome in itself, that I am able to do that.” ∎
