Once a regular face in the Sydney jockeys’ room riding Group 1 winners the ilk of Grand Armee, Fashions Afield and Victory Vein, Danny Beasley will be back in familiar territory when he heads to Rosehill for three mounts.
Beasley has enjoyed one of racing’s more interesting journeys, spending more than a decade in Singapore where he also had great success before retiring from race riding in 2017 to work as an assistant trainer.
When COVID hit a few years later and Singapore’s riding ranks thinned, Beasley, a natural lightweight who was still hopping on horses at trackwork, decided to rejoin the professional ranks.
It was a second coming of sorts and now the 47-year-old is embarking on another, this time in his homeland.
“To be truthful, I’ve never enjoyed it so much. Maybe I just needed that break from race riding,” Beasley said.
“That two years that I rode in Singapore before I came home, we had a lot of luck. That gave me the confidence to say, ‘I’m just going to come back (to Australia) and ride and see how I go’.
“I haven’t put any pressure on myself, or expectation, and I think that’s shining out in my riding.
“I feel that I’m riding pretty well and I have always been my harshest critic, that’s the only way you get better and keep in the game.”
Beasley and his young family have settled in Wagga, the town where he grew up.
He has been happily plying his trade in the Riverina and across the border in country Victoria but has also grasped metropolitan opportunities in Melbourne and more recently Sydney.
Beasley had a ride for Wagga trainer Mitch Beer at Randwick on the final day of The Championships and on Saturday he heads to Rosehill for three mounts, although it is the Danielle Seib-trained Highway Handicap hopeful Do This All Day that is the reason he’s in town.
“I trialled him at Wagga and he trialled really well so I said I’d be happy to go and ride him,” Beasley said.
“As far as I know she is still keen to run, even though he’s drawn a bit awkward (barrier 16). His run last start at Randwick in a similar race, he was really unlucky not to finish a lot closer.”
Beasley will also partner the Peter and Paul Snowden-trained Miss Hellfire in the Alan Davidson Handicap (1200m) and To The Nines for Tash Burleigh in the Vale Dean Holland Handicap (1500m), a race that will hold special significance for all participants.
Beasley only met Holland once when both rode at Benalla six weeks ago, and he wasn’t surprised by the outpouring of grief for the jockey, who tragically died from injuries suffered in a race fall this week.
“I rode at Sandown (a few weeks ago) and Dean was at Randwick and when he rode a lot of the jockeys got around the TV to watch him. You picked up pretty quickly that this guy was a popular person,” Beasley said.
“I can’t remember an incident like this that has made such waves through the industry in all my time.”
