“PlayStation” Horse Has Callan Murray Making Opportunities Count
The South African rider is back in the Group 1 groove since he returned home from his wandering 20s that brought tough but valued learning experiences in Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.
THERE WAS A thought playing on Callan Murray’s mind when he landed back in South Africa last May after more than three and a half years living and riding in South Australia. It went something like this: you might not get many more chances, so make the most of it.
Eight months later, he heads into Kenilworth’s prestigious G1 King’s Plate to ride the emerging three-year-old star Jan Van Goyen, the Mike and Mathew de Kock stable’s G1 Cape Guineas hero who Murray describes as his “PlayStation” horse.
“Not many people keep getting opportunities, especially when they might be a bit down and out,” Murray tells Idol Horse, “So, when I returned to South Africa, my main goal was to capitalise on the chance I’d been given. That has happened, fortunately, and I want to continue to do that … I’m back riding Group 1 winners.”
He’s had four all told since he got back. Sean Tarry’s Mia Moo in the South African Fillies’ Sprint came first, then the De Kocks came good with Dave The King in the Gold Challenge, all within the first few weeks of the former champion apprentice’s return. Jan Van Goyen has delivered two more since.
Murray, 29, has spent plenty of his 20s away from home: Hong Kong and Singapore, with home stints either side, then his long spell in Adelaide, which brought cherished relationships and life-changing experiences. It has not all been plain sailing off-shore though.
“In the previous three and a half years or whatever, I think I only had one or two Group 1 rides, so it was a tough task and it was a tough few years in that regard,” he says.
“I’ve had a few tough international experiences, but looking back on them now, they’ve all certainly helped me improve. I’ve learned so much from them and probably didn’t realise how much I was learning when I was younger. Now that I’m a bit older, I’m certainly getting a lot more value from looking back on those times.”
The teenage Murray had a successful six-week spell in Australia with David Hayes before he left South Africa for his first Hong Kong experience in late May of 2017. He was a precocious talent back then, 20 years of age and already the winner of four Group 1 races in rapid succession: three in one incredible afternoon at Turffontein just two weeks before he stepped out for his first rides at Sha Tin.
He made his mark in a late-season Hong Kong spell that brought two Group 3 wins aboard Lucky Year and Horse Of Fortune, the latter in the infamous contest that saw the quirky but brilliant Pakistan Star pull himself up down the back at Sha Tin.
He returned to South Africa for the following campaign, but was back in Hong Kong for the start of the 2018-19 season with high hopes that he would build on his first stint successes.
But the notoriously difficult Hong Kong circuit waits for no one and when winners were difficult to come by, the good rides went elsewhere: a hip injury compounded Murray’s ill-fortune and he was gone after five months with only two wins on the board. He headed to Singapore but struggled there, too, and pulled the plug on that chapter in August 2019 with only five wins from 159 rides.
“Group 1 success came very quickly for me,” he says. “I finished my apprenticeship, had my first Group 1 winner and I think it was 30 days later that I had my next three Group 1 winners: the next day I got the call-up to Hong Kong. It happened all so quickly, and I didn’t give it a lot of thought at the time. I sort of just went with it.
“That’s not to say I didn’t appreciate it in the moment, but not as much as I do now and not as much as I realise how difficult it is to obtain those sorts of winners and opportunities.
“The first time in Hong Kong was just a ton of excitement,” he continues. “I didn’t even really feel that much pressure at the time. Things were going so well and I was certainly on a confidence high. And that was a fantastic trip: that experience was very easy, smooth sailing.
“However, the second trip to Hong Kong was one I really had to negotiate because it was probably the first time in my career that I’d really hit such a low. And that was something I hadn’t dealt with before and I had to learn to. I probably didn’t get it right then and I probably still get a few things wrong now, but I’m certainly better for it.”
He stuck to focussing on the basics during the difficult times, believing things would come right again if he did those things well, but looking back to his tough second spell in Hong Kong, he pinpoints the relationship building that is essential for any jockey to succeed there.
“It’s not just about riding and being a jockey, it’s your communication to trainers and owners and also planning your rides according to the handicap system, which isn’t easy without an agent,” he says. “I certainly could have been better in that aspect and maybe, in hindsight, I can look back and say, that’s an area where I was lacking and where I’ve been able to improve on. You’ve got to have that in the back of your head.
“I’ve learned that a good jockey makes less mistakes than the next jockey, so my goal is always to go to the races and make as little in the way of mistakes as possible and give my horses their best opportunities.”
And he knows that is easier to do when you have a strong stable with top class horses backing you. That’s what he has with the De Kock operation: Mike de Kock has had his back ever since those early days, providing him with his first three Group 1 wins, two of those – Rafeef and Mustaaqeem – in the world famous blue and white of the late Hamdan Al Maktoum’s Shadwell.
“Mike de Kock gave me my first race ride, my first Group 1 winner, so pretty well all my firsts in racing have come from that stable,” Murray says and acknowledges that it is “a privilege” to have that support.
The de Kocks, he says, “were instrumental in me coming back” from Australia. He had headed to Adelaide not long after Mat de Kock set up in a Melbourne training partnership with Robbie Griffiths. Murray would visit de Kock in Melbourne, spending Christmases and family holidays: it was through de Kock that he met his wife, Danni, who worked at the Melbourne stables and rode trackwork.
But back in Adelaide – where he was based due to the terms of his work visa – his career was not reaching the levels of success he had hoped for.
“I was just punching away and it hadn’t gone as well as I’d hoped, but I was sort of sticking it out for the residency perspective and that sort of thing,” he says. “Then Mat came back to South Africa and they started with a bang. Not only that, he had a lot of interest from people wanting to own horses with them: over the next few years, we’ll see the stable grow.
“(Mat) said, ‘Look, if you want to come back, there’s an opportunity, you’ll slide right in,’ and, you know, it was a tough decision, especially because my wife’s Australian … but now I’m able to go to the races with a good mindset, having had the experiences I’ve had over the past few years and I’m certainly in a good space outside of racing, with family life and that sort of thing.”
He and Danni married on May 8 last year, just before the move to South Africa.
“I’m quite busy racing almost every day at the moment, but I’m able to come home, switch off and then have a good work-life balance,” he says.
The balance is helping him maintain his weight, too. Murray is 178cm in his bare feet, that’s about 5ft 10in.
“My weight has fluctuated quite heavy at times,” he says. “I’ve been at points where I was struggling to make 57 kilos, but one other good thing that did come out of Hong Kong in the second stint was working with the registered dietitian that they provided. I learned the proper ways of eating and calorie counting.
“At the moment, I know my bottom is 54 kilos: I can get lighter, but that’s quite a comfortable weight for me riding every day because then I don’t have to sweat and it’s a lot easier to maintain, which is good, so you can look forward to those key days.”
He is certainly looking forward to the King’s Plate. And he has a healthy degree of confidence in his star colt’s ability, so much so that he opted to ride Jan Van Goyen over the former Horse of the Year Dave The King. He steered both to big wins over a mile at Kenilworth on December 13.
“There was definitely a decision to be made,” he says. “I opted for Jan Van Goyen, being the younger horse and more up and coming. He had it all against him winning last time: he had a very tricky prep into the race, it was two weeks between runs and he travelled to Cape Town the week of, which is not very common. And to see him perform that way, I believed he was going to improve from the run.”
Jan Van Goyen clocked 1:38.45 in winning the Cape Guineas; Dave The King’s time for the G2 Green Point Stakes was 1:38.77. The up-and-comer has a weight-for-age allowance of five kilograms in the mile feature.
“He’s actually one of the first horses I rode when I got back from Australia,” Murray continues. “I just gave him a canter leading into the race and I said, ‘Well, geez, this will win.’ And he went on to win by four and a half lengths that day.
“He’s not a big horse, I think he probably gets on the scales in the 450 kilos range, if not just lower than that. So, he’s not big at all, especially when you compare him to Dave The King who is on about 550 kilos.”
It is Jan Van Goyen’s “straightforward” way of going through his races that has Murray describing him as “a special little horse”, and the experience riding him as being like “playing PlayStation”.
“He jumps, settles, does whatever he’s asked and quickens when you ask him to go. So, he’s certainly a pleasure for a jockey to ride.
“It’s so easy, it’s that easy,” he adds, knowing full well that easy doesn’t happen without the hard work and the tough times thrown in. ∎
