Champion New Zealand apprentice jockey, Sam Weatherley, will join the Chris Waller stable, at Rosehill, for three months.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity and now it has been confirmed, I can’t wait to get to Sydney,” said Weatherley.

“Thanks to a lot of people, like my boss, Lance O’Sullivan, and all the trainers who have put me on, I’ve achieved what I’ve wanted to do here. “

In his first season of riding for O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott, Weatherley won the apprentices premiership with 67 winners, and is currently on 62 wins for this season, 17 clear of Jasmine Fawcett.

New Zealand has never been short of good jockeys, those that have had success here include Bob Skelton, Garry Willets and Greg Childs.

Keith Voitre and Hughie Cairns were exceptional jockeys all those years ago, Crains won the Grand National Hurdle twice on Clontarf in 1914 ,and Maranqua in 1919, he showed his versatility when he won the Melbourne Cup in 1926 on Spearfelt, he lost his life in a fall from Quick Deal, in a Hurdle race at Moonee Valley.  

Voitre came across from New Zealand about the time Lou Robertson set up stables at Mordialloc, his residence backed on to the Epsom Racecourse, however, he rarely worked his horses there, he preferred Aspendale, across the creek away from the spies.

It didn’t take long for the spies to cotton on to Lou; while his horses were working they had a grandstand view from the Aspendale Railway Station.

Twenty horses would be about Robertson’s team at any one time, with the aid of Voitre they swept the plate clean in the spring of 1935, winning the Cox Plate with Garrio, the Derby with Felspar, the Melbourne Cup with Marabou, and the Oaks with Nalda.    

Four years after that memorable Spring Carnival, Keith Voitre lost his life in a fall from Frill Prince at Moonee Valley.

Lou Robertson with Keith Voitre