Record breaking jockey Chris Munce is looking forward to continuing his outstanding form into the Spring after reaching his season’s goal of one hundred metroploitan winners with a winning treble at the Sunshine Coast on Saturday.

Belltone

Jockey Chris Munce notched his hundredth winner on Belltone in the Glasshouse Handicap at the Sunshine Coast - photo © Daniel Costello

Munce teamed up with Eagle Farm trainer Kelso Wood to notch his hundredth winner on Belltone in the Listed $175,000 Reed Property Group Glasshouse Handicap (1400m) after scoring on stable mate Grey Assignment and Neriani for Melbourne trainer John Sadler.

Along the way Munce surpassed Mick Dittman’s long standing record of ninety-seven and a half Brisbane winners for a season on his way to become the first Brisbane jockey to reach the one hundred milestone and was thrilled to achieve the feat on the Sunshine Coast track.

“I am genuinely thrilled to do it here at Caloundra. As much as it would have been nice at Eagle Farm, I started riding here and it was good to come through the grades here and then graduate to the Gold Coast and then to town,” Munce said.

“It’s always been a first-class track.”

Munce set his sights on the one hundred target early in the season but said it has been a lot of hard work along the way.

“Until the next bloke comes along and rides more than 100 winners … well, good luck to them, but I know what it takes to do it. It’s a lot of hard work, a lot of rides. There’s more to it than just turning up on race day and riding a winner. There’s a lot of work that happens behind the scenes, riding trackwork and trials,” Munce said

“But at the end of the day it’s all worthwhile.”

Munce has won most of the major races on the Australians racing calendar including the four major Group 1s, the 1998 Melbourne Cup on Jezabeel, the 2004 Cox Plate on Savabeel, two Golden Slippers on Prowl and Dance Hero and the 2010 Caulfield Cup on Descarado.

The premiership winning jockey added one more Group 1 to his tally when he teamed up with Wood when two year old Sizzling, going through the Brisbane Winter Carnival undefeated when he took out the Group 1 $500,000 Patinack Farm T J Smith (1600m) at Eagle Farm on June 9.

Sizzling is the catalyst that Munce will have heading south in the Spring and Wood is aiming the colt at the Group 1 $1m Caulfield Guineas (1600m) at Caulfield on October 13.

And stablemate Belltone looks likely to join Sizzling on the float to Melbourne after capping off a good winter with back to back wins after taking out the Listed $175,000 City Of Ipswich Eye Liner Stakes (1350m) at Ipswich on June 16.

“I might take him to Melbourne with Sizzling,” Wood said.

“I will see what our options are. He should hold his own down there.”

“He has been a great acquisition for us. I think he can improve a little bit more. I think he will run over 2000 metres.”

“I’ll have to sit down and work out a program for him but I definitely think he can measure up in a good race down south.”

Wood has done a tremendous job with Belltone and has taken the six year old from an Eagle Farm maiden winner to the winner of two Listed races as well as being placed in a Group 2 in the last twelve months.

About The Author

Mark Mazzaglia

Mark is a passionate journalist with a life-time involvement in the racing industry. He spent many years as an analyst and form expert at the Courier Mail and also has hands-on experience working with some of Queensland’s top trainers.