By Orville Clarke, Freelance Reporter
Jockey Robert Reid pushes out MINISTER'S DELIGHT (right) to hold off TECH ALL in the IGL Fan Appreciation Day Trophy on New Year's Day at Caymanas Park. MINISTER'S DELIGHT won at odds of 13-1. - Dennis Coke
ROBERT Reid has started the year with a bang and it's no accident.
The veteran lightweight jockey rode two winners on New Year's Day and has since added two more to be joint leading rider with Clive Lynch on four winners. Lynch, however, has done so from 20 rides, Reid from only 11.
In recent weeks he is definitely the man to follow, if odds are anything to go by.
Since December 29, the pint-sized jockey who is popularly called "Collie" Reid, has ridden five winners (in five race days), including three raging outsiders in YES OR NO at 58-1, MAHENDRA EXPRESS at 18-1 in the Paul Newman Memorial Cup and MINISTER'S DELIGHT at 13-1 in the IGL Fan Appreciation Day Trophy on New Year's Day.
And for good measure he also won aboard 4-1 shot PRINCE ADAM on New Year's Day and LADY MUNCH at 6-1 on Saturday. What has sparked this rebirth?
"I made a New Year's resolution that I would take my riding seriously this year and what you are seeing is a manifestation of that.
"You said I started the New Year with a bang. I plan to end it with a bang", he declared.
Reid, who turns 42 on May 28, said his good form can be attributed to his current level of fitness.
"Right now I have never felt better and that is the key. Last year I was never able to maintain consistently good form owing to recurring injuries. On top of that I travelled frequently to the United States and this stop and start thing can't work", explains the father of seven.
The jockey also credited his team - popular agent Derrick "Fireball" Campbell and valet Anthony "Gizzy" Campbell - for keeping him on his toes. "Fireball", who is agent for champion jockey Charles Hussey as well, goes that extra mile to secure choice lightweight rides for him.
But it all comes down to the prowess of the jockey on the day. Even with his old-fashioned aggressive style of riding, Reid is a little dynamo in the saddle who is feared by all. He rides with fire in his wire, so to speak.
"This is veteran's time now", he contends. "You notice how the senior jockeys like Fanna Griffiths, Hussey, Trevor Simpson, Robles, Najair and Clive Lynch riding well. Is our time now".
Tipping the scales at 46.0kg, he has long been one of the country's best lightweight jockeys.
Recalling his early association with racing, Reid was introduced to the sport by no less a person than Bob Marley and the late Charlie Brown. As a youngster growing up in Drewsland in the 70s, he used to sell the Gleaner and Star newspapers along the Washington Boulevard, before being bitten by the racing bug in 1977.
He was apprenticed to trainer Dennis Sasso but actually rode his first winner, ENCHANTED LETTERS, for trainer Anthony Pearson two years later.
Over the years he has ridden some really good horses, including the Pearson-trained CESARIO who went on to win the 1982 Jamaica Derby with Neville Anderson astride, as well as THE BOSS, NUCLEAR EXPLOSION and reigning 'Horse of the Year' MENUDO, who he piloted to victory as a three-year-old in the 1999 Harry Jackson Memorial Cup, beating hot favourite BLUMENTHAL with Emilio Rodriques up.
His darkest day in racing?
"That day in November 1997 when I won the Red Stripe Superstakes aboard the filly P.W's CHOICE, only to be disqualified and the race awarded to the Trinidadian horse MY FRIEND RICH", recalls Reid whose younger brother, Richard, is also a jockey.
To date "Collie" has ridden over 300 winners at Caymanas Park, not to mention scores of winners while riding for an extended period on the North American circuit (Philadelphia Park, Delaware Park, Penn National, etc.) during a lengthy stay aboard in the early 90s.
