Kevin Sweeney has just one wish in retirement - that travel-weary country jockeys be subsidised at a rate comparable to their Victorian cousins.
Having pulled the pin on a 46-year career and retiring after incurring a suspension at Nowra on Tuesday, the oldest jockey in the state will champion the cause of his fellow riders who scour the countryside in search of winners.
"I think they need to be compensated for their travelling a bit more," the 61-year-old Canberra-based Sweeney said. "They do a helluva lot of travelling, which can be a lot for just one or two rides, and Victoria [gives a subsidy] for that and our boys are only getting $30.
"You see boys like Jeff Penza, Bucko [Grant Buckley], Greg Ryan and RT [Robert Thompson] ... they do thousands and thousands of miles a year and they deserve some compensation for it. I'd like to see them get a bit more compensated for that type of travelling."
At last count, Sweeney's career winners stood at around the 1300 mark. He had set himself for a big Wagga Gold Cup carnival, but when suspension meant he was going to miss the Riverina's two-day carnival he knew the time was right.
But he will still have the memories of riding the Murrumbidgee Cup and Wagga Town Plate Prelude winners only a couple of days before pulling the pin.
"I've been getting phone calls [all week] and I'm quite overwhelmed by [the reaction] and didn't really expect it," he said. "I've been pretty lucky."
Orange Cup postponed again by April rains
How much longer can Racing Orange pursue an April timeslot for their Orange Cup meeting? Maybe not that much longer after Friday's $50,000 race - abandoned for the second week in a row due to wet weather and the state of the track - has left the Orange Cup in limbo again in 2015.
Last year's Cup was also shifted from its traditional April timeslot with a scaled-down version run in the new season and Racing Orange - which isn't scheduled to hold another meeting until October - likely to follow a similar path this year before debating the merits of shifting the Cup on their program.
"Racing Orange has been in existence for four years and I think we've run two cups and lost two cups and one of those was run on a Heavy [10]," Racing Orange's executive officer Daniel Brincat said. "I think the weather gods are trying to tell us to look for a new date.
"We normally sit down and assess how the current season went and one of the things we'll discuss is the placement of the Orange Cup."
Possibly complicating matters for Racing Orange is that they are awaiting Racing NSW to finish the tender process for million-dollar track improvements, which would alleviate the problem the club has had with its crossings.
Racing Orange is hopeful contractors will be locked in by June as local trainers bank on a new training track.
TAB meetings
Sunday - Narromine. Monday - Muswellbrook. Tuesday - Port Macquarie, Wagga. Friday - Grafton. Saturday - Bathurst.
