Danny Beasley’s Australian return will occur at a track he knows well with the successful jockey booked for five rides at Thursday’s Wagga meeting.
Beasley grew up in the area, where he now resides with his wife and three young childen, and Thursday’s outing will be the resumption of a career that has amassed almost 1800 winners, 24 of them at the highest level in either Australia and Singapore.
It was a push from trainer and long-time friend Tim Donnelly to partner Participator, who has won two of his six starts, at his return that prompted the 47-year-old to select Thursday’s meeting as his comeback fixture.
“I’ve always stayed in contact with Tim, he’s been a good friend for a long time, and he said Participator was going to kick off here and he’s a pretty nice horse and he was keen for me to jump on him,” Beasley said.
“As it’s worked out, we’ve worked things out off him and end up with four other rides and all of the four look to have got a bit of a chance somewhere along the line.”
Participator, who also boasts a Randwick Highway second placing on his form card, is favourite for the BM66 that rounds out the Wagga card.
His ride in 1600m maiden that is the third event, the Donna Scott-trained Siasha Jewel, is also favourite, while the Darrell Burnet-trained I Am Richenuff is second favourite for the 1800m BM58 that is Race 6.
Beasley’s other rides are first-starter County Kilkenny, who is also trained by Donnelly, in the opening event and Whitehart for Peter Maher in the 1200m fillies and mares’ maiden.
Thursday will be the first time since late 2015 that Beasley has ridden in Australia with the jockey having then returned to Singapore, which is where he was predominantly-based since late-2007.
Beasley rode more than 600 winners in Singapore, including the Raffles Cup, Kranji Mile, and Lion City Cup, and thought that was where he would end his career.
But Covid, which came not long after the death of his wife Ash’s parents, changed all that. Beasley’s focus then shifted to ensuring he and his children, Mikayl (10), Phoenix (nine) and Sonique (three), maintained a close connection with his parents.
“You can leave Singapore in the morning and be back in Wagga in the afternoon, so it was never really a thought of coming back permanently, but when covid hit and that was taken away from us, I’d never felt so far away and I felt really isolated,” Beasley said.
“It really hit me that I was a fair way from home and made me question whether living in Singapore was really what I wanted.
“It was quite important for us that our kids have the exposure to grandparents and family, which was taken away from us in Singapore, so we thought, ‘let’s get back here and make family the priority’.”
Beasley is resuming his career at Wagga and has not set any firm goals, but is open to returning to the big stage, on which he had great success on before moving to Singapore.
Best known for his association with Grand Armee, on whom he won six Group 1s, including two Queen Elizabeth Stakes and a Doncaster Mile, Beasley also won a Golden Slipper aboard Polar Success, a Newmarket Handicap aboard Miss Pennymoney and multiple Group 1s aboard Victory Vein and Fashions Afield.
“I haven’t put any expectation or goals on what I would like to achieve but if any opportunities arise I’ll grab them with both hands,” he said.
“I’ll just kick off down here being low-key and hopefully get a few winners.
“I felt that I’ve ridden well in Singapore the past couple of years, so I’m keen to have a bit of a go and where that takes me, who knows.
“If you keep putting your hand up, you just don’t know what horse is around the corner.”