Sport
19 October, 2025
Veteran jockey continues to travel far and wide for rides
'Have saddle, will travel' is a mantra Paul Hamblin takes more seriously than most of his colleagues.
Getting to Brisbane Airport early enough to catch his flight to Mount Isa might be one of the easiest raceday assignments for veteran jockey Paul Hamblin.
Once considered to be in Australia’s top echelon of jumps riders, the “heavyweight” hoop has reinvented himself in recent times as someone who is not afraid to travel far and wide for work.
In fact, the 59-year-old rode in more races last season than in any of his previous 10 seasons in the saddle.
Over the past month, Hamblin has ridden at Doomben, Dalby, Sunshine Coast, Gatton, Longreach, Eidsvold, Kilcoy, Cloncurry, Warwick, Warrnambool (yes, the Victorian coastal city), Ipswich, Stanthorpe and Toowoomba.
Just yesterday, he drove down towards the QLD-NSW border to Stanthorpe for four rides, with the final race jumping at 4.20pm, then back up the New England Highway to Toowoomba for just the one ride in a maiden at Clifford Park.
The horse, a $13 shot, finished third, and the race was the last on the night program, finishing at about 8.40pm.
North West Weekly has no idea what time Hamblin arrived home that night – he and his wife have a property at Peachester on the Sunshine Coast hinterland – because the best time to interview him was on Friday as he was preparing to take one ride at Ipswich, having travelled to Gatton the day before – also for just the one booking.
“If I keep getting rung up for rides, it’s hard to say no,” the jockey admitted.
“There’s a lack of riders coming through who are willing to travel these distances … it’s sad to see people struggling to get riders.
“Jockeys don’t want to travel as much these days.”
Figuring out where to be, especially on Saturdays, is why Hamblin is rarely sighted in the North West.
In the last couple of years, he’s only appeared in the Outback for TAB meetings at Cloncurry or Mount Isa outside of the busy Saturday schedules.
“Some Saturdays I have five places to choose from,” Hamblin said.
“It can be hard to pick where to go.”
The former Victorian jumps jockey has no real ties to Mount Isa, but dropped former local jockey Mark “Barney” Cummings’ name as someone he grew up riding with during their younger years.
He also knows Graham and Linda Huddy – well-known local racing enthusiasts who made their fortune in the mining city before making the move to the Sunshine Coast, just “800 metres as the crow flies” from Hamblin’s property.
“I’ve ridden a bit of work there, just for a couple of weeks while their rider was away,” said Hamblin of the Huddys’ property, Peachester Lodge.
“But I don’t see them very often.”
On his best day, Hamblin might be able to ride at 57kg, but he told North West Weekly he was glad he’d only have to ride at 60.5kg at Buchanan Park tomorrow.
“I won’t need the wheelie bin,” he said.
Asked to elaborate for the non-racing readers, the jockey said that when bush clubs didn’t have a sauna or a spa to help jockeys shed weight by sweating, he’d organise for a wheelie bin to be put in the showers.
“You fill it with hot water and drop in and sit there and just sweat,” he said.
Hamblin has six rides on tomorrow’s seven-race TAB program and said it was Denise Ballard who approached him to ride the meeting.
“She hit me up at Cloncurry and, because it was a Monday, I was able to make it,” he said, acknowledging that Racing Queensland’s flight subsidy for jockeys racing in the North West made it possible.
“I actually missed out (on the subsidy) because the four spots had already been booked (under the scheme). But thankfully, Racing Queensland extended it for all jockeys because they desperately need riders out there.”
Hamblin says he has no intention of pulling the pin on riding anytime soon, but suggested a few tweaks could be made to bolster rider numbers in the country areas.
“There’s enough jockeys but they should send them out bush for three months or six months,” he said.
“Some bosses won’t let them go because they want them for trackwork but the experience is great.
“Look at (top Brisbane jockey) Angela Jones. She was getting on overnight buses and travelling out west in her early years.
"I'm not sure if we'll see another Angela Jones."
Hamblin also agreed with the suggestion that apprentices be given an additional number of wins in the bush before losing part of their claim.
The first race of tomorrow’s Mount Isa meeting jumps at 12.25pm, with the last race scheduled for 4.10pm. It’s free entry for all spectators.