Ashley Morgan was clearly stressed when he answered his mobile phone on Sunday morning. He was at Merriwa in the western Hunter region halfway into a four hour trip from Newcastle to the Wellington race meeting. A short time earlier he’d become a victim of one of the countless potholes currently plaguing motorists on eastern NSW roads. He was almost into Merriwa when a front tyre gave up the ghost.
Ashley was forced to abandon his car at a Merriwa service station and get on the phone to Newcastle participants who had commitments at the Wellington meeting. It wasn’t long before he was sitting alongside jockey Reece Jones who’d been travelling a few kilometres behind him. The bad luck wasn’t over yet. Just twenty minutes out of Wellington, Reece got a call from trainer Cameron Crockett with the news that the meeting had been called off after early morning rain. “That was a good way to waste the day,” said Ashley. “We turned around and started to head back to Newcastle. I actually stayed the night in Scone, because I had to get to Merriwa on Monday morning to sort out the issues with my car. I then had five rides at Quirindi where a win on Cantrell for Paul Perry helped ease the pain.”
Punters and race fans who regularly monitor provincial and country race meetings, will have noticed that Welsh born Ashley Morgan has had quite a presence over the last four years. He rode 45 winners in his first season (2018/2019), 57.5 winners 2019/2020 with a significant jump to 82.5 last season. As this story goes onto the website he’s on top in the NSW premiership race with 89 wins, one win ahead of James McDonald. Testimony to his talents, is the fact that his services are sought by a very wide range of trainers.
Ashley looks like an Aussie jockey these days! Here he is winning on Artefiori at Muswellbrook 29/01/2019 - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
Thirty one year old Ashley was born and reared near the Welsh capital of Cardiff. He learned to ride on hunters and point to point horses owned by his grandfather Gareth. By age thirteen or fourteen he’d graduated to riding trackwork for local thoroughbred trainers. He originally aspired to become a jumps jockey, never dreaming that he’d remain light enough to pursue a career in flat racing. It was English trainer Phillip Hobbs who encouraged him to take out an apprenticeship. “I had two weeks work experience with Phillip at Somerset in England, and he suggested I should give it a go while my weight was stable,” said Ashley.
He was sixteen years old when he signed up with Mark Tompkins at historic Newmarket. He was to spend five years with the respected trainer whose career highlight was a win in 1993 with Bob’s Return in the St. Leger - the oldest of England’s five great classic races. Fittingly Tompkins trained Ashley’s first winner, a gelding called Sumner at Pontefract in West Yorkshire.
He’s come a long way since that first win at Pontefract. Here he is winning on Emanuela at Muswellbrook, one of three winners for the day - 29/01/2019 - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
The young Welshman later transferred his indentures to high profile Newmarket trainer Ed Dunlop who currently has twenty five Gr 1 wins on the board in eight countries. Perhaps he’s best known as the trainer of the seven time Gr 1 winning mare Ouija Board, while Australians know him as the trainer of the ill fated Red Cadeaux, a triple Melbourne Cup placegetter. “I enjoyed my two years with Ed Dunlop who gave me some good opportunities,” said Ashley.
The jockey spent the latter stages of his apprenticeship with Chris Wall but by this time disillusionment was starting to creep in. “My weight was unstable and opportunities were drying up,” said Morgan. “It was either a case of having a crack at jumps racing or taking a complete break from racing. I settled on a change of lifestyle. I had no regrets about my time as an apprentice in England. I’d ridden seventy winners including a handful at Royal Ascot and Newmarket. I got a big kick when Lambourn trainer Paul Cole asked me to fly to Paris for one ride at a place called Le Croise Laroche. The horse won and I’ll be dining out on that for years to come.”
Ashley wasted no time in finding a life after racing. He began with a job in a London real estate office and later worked for an employment recruitment firm. Before he knew it fourteen months had passed and he suddenly found himself missing the horses. Any thoughts of returning to race riding were quickly dispelled when he jumped on the scales. His weight had soared to an unthinkable 68kgs.
He decided to return to his native Wales while sorting out his likely future. He started to run on a regular basis and spent a lot of time at the gymnasium. He was heartened when his weight dropped quickly to 61kgs, and he still hadn’t been on a horse. He learned that his friend Simon Pearce had accepted an offer to become a trackwork rider for American trainer Pete Eurton at Santa Anita. Simon contacted Eurton and before he knew it Ashley was also on his way to California. “I spent a wonderful three months there,” recalls the jockey. “I rode a huge number of horses alongside some great horsemen. It was a tremendous learning curve in one of the busiest training precincts in the world.”
After his 88th win of the season on Oh Golly Gosh at Newcastle 26/03/2022 - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
Continuous trackwork and regular exercise in a sweat jacket, had reduced Ashley’s weight to a very realistic 57 or 58kgs. This is when he started to think of new horizons. “I found contact details for Australian trainers on the internet and quickly rattled off about a dozen emails,” he said. “I got two replies. One thanked me for enquiring but didn’t have a position available. The other came from a trainer called Brett Cavanough at a place called Scone in NSW. I soon discovered that he was a successful trainer who had a lot of runners and a lot of winners. The upshot was that he offered me a job should I come to Australia. He was true to his word and by May of 2018 I was riding trackwork at this beautiful place in the Hunter Valley. I’m happy to say I’m still riding Brett’s horses in races.”
Horsemen wanted to have a good look at this young bloke from Cardiff, and as a result things moved slowly. Stephen Jones was the trainer to provide his first Australian ride at Coonabarabran. “I got beaten out of sight,” recalled Ashley. “I was lost on the turning tracks and I couldn’t get used to the frantic pace of Australian racing. I’d always been a jockey to let them find their feet which you can do on the big English tracks. I soon learned that finding their feet in Australia means you can’t be further back than midfield in most cases. I quickly adapted.”
For a jockey who’d ridden winners on the endless stretches of Royal Ascot and Newmarket, the last track on which he expected to ride his first Australian winner was Gilgandra. “It’s a tight little course with three turns and is very foreign to a jockey from the UK,” he said. “On top of that, the race I won was a BM50 race over 800m. I’ll always be grateful to trainer Bryan Dixon and a horse called Hidden Chief who only recently finished his career in Queensland.”
There was little weight on Miss Valbonne's back as she raced away to win at Gosford 23/11/2019 - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
Ashley looks back on January 29th 2019 at Muswellbrook as the day his career got under way in Australia. He rode his first ever treble - Artefiori and Emanuela for Paul Messara, and Drusilla for Jay Hopkins. He’d ridden several doubles in the UK but this was his first three timer. By this time he’d built a good rapport with western districts trainers and was covering huge mileage to ride regularly at places like Dubbo, Mudgee, Narromine and Bathurst. He’s grateful for the support he received from Brett Thompson in the early stages of his Australian career. “He trains a pretty big team of horses at Gulgong,” says Ashley. “He’s the only trainer using the Gulgong track as far as I know. He put me on everything in the place, and we won a lot of races together.”
Ashley is now nudging up towards 300 NSW wins including a string of country features. In a short space of time he’s ridden the winners of a South Grafton Cup (Texas Storm), Dubbo and Coonamble Cups (Aesop’s Fable), Walcha Cup (Valley’s Sister), and a Cessnock Cup (Unwavering Faith). In almost four years of riding in NSW Ashley has had less than thirty rides on metropolitan tracks. “I haven’t been able to ride a city winner so far, but I’m hoping it will happen sooner rather than later,” he said. “In fact I’m toying with the idea of giving it a shot in the city on a full time basis. I’m comfortable at 54kg and I’m prepared to ride whatever trackwork is required to gain a foothold.”
Ashley is currently going stride for stride with James McDonald on the NSW premiership ladder - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
His new life in Australia has also brought him a relationship with partner Kara who’s of Irish descent and was working at Sledmere Stud when the pair first met. They are now the proud parents of a delightful two year old daughter called River. Ashley has endured three very painful losses during his time away from Wales. River’s imminent birth prevented him from attending the funeral of his maternal grandmother in 2019. Last year he lost his maternal grandfather Gareth, the man who’d introduced him to horses twenty years ago. It was unthinkable that Ashley’s mother should pass away just ten days later, after a long illness. He was saddened that Covid travel restrictions kept him away from the funerals of two more loved ones.
The thirty one year old is still in disbelief that he’s been able to make such an impression in just four years in this country. “Thanks to Brett Cavanough who was kind enough to respond to my email in early 2018, I’ve been able to build a career in a foreign land,” said Ashley. “Without Brett it would never have happened. I also owe a vote of thanks to several other trainers who’ve been prepared to give me a go.”
One of those trainers is Port Macquarie’s Jenny Graham who was one of the first to acknowledge Ashley’s talent. “He’s very professional and rides with a cool head,” she said. “I’ve been very impressed with all the rides he’s had for my stable. He also happens to be a very pleasant bloke.”
Perhaps Brett Cavanough should have the final word. “I knew Ashley had gained wide experience overseas and it was obvious he could ride a racehorse,” said the multiple premiership winning trainer. “It wasn’t until he started riding trackwork at Scone that I realized he was a lot more than a race rider. He’s got a great pair of hands and is calm and composed on the most highly strung of horses. I’ve never heard him raise his voice to a horse. Most importantly he’s as reliable as they come. His success has come as no surprise.”
Thanks Brett Cavanough. That says it all.
Morgan with trainer Adam Duggan at Gosford - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
(Banner image - Ashley's everywhere! Here he is winning on Cantrell at Tamworth recently - courtesy Bradley Photographers.)