Nikki Pollock - Pryde's Country Trainer Of The Month for May.
Nikki Pollock’s ten wins for the month of May was impressive enough. To achieve that figure with only twenty horses in work is perhaps the best performance we’ve seen since the “Country Trainer Award” was introduced in 2021. Nikki and her team go to great lengths to find the right races for their stable runners, and don’t mind travelling long distances to the relevant meetings. They patronise both professional and picnic meetings all over the state.
The Pollock stable began its magical month when Too Casual scored at Binnaway on May 3rd with Billy Cray on board. One week later Nikki’s son Arthur was the jockey when consistent Joanneski won an 800m “scamper” at the Quambone picnics. May 17th was a day to remember, the Pollock stable’s first ever four timer. Nikki sent nine horses or half the team to Brewarrina and won half the programme with Il Tevere (Billy Cray), Yotosu (Zoe Hunt), The Defiant One (Zoe Hunt) and Joanneski (Cray).
On May 29th Pierro mare Pappiana started favourite and comfortably won a Cl 2 at Inverell for Billy Cray. Score for the month was now seven wins. The very next day Nikki dispatched a team of ten horses on a punishing 500 km trip to Cobar in the NSW outback. The exercise was a fruitful one. Billy Cray got Cooma Hut home while Zoe Hunt won on Hit Song and Joanneski. Three second placings also contributed to the hefty fuel bill.
Pappiana (Billy Cray) makes it win number 7 for May at Inverell 29/05/2025 - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
Ben and Nikki Pollock took a bold step in 2011 when they decided to leave their native England and relocate to Australia with young sons Arthur and Jack. Perhaps the uncertainty of such a life changing move was tempered by the fact that Nikki already had family members here. Ben Pollock had enjoyed notable success in the UK as an amateur jumps jockey, before transitioning into the training of jumpers in his home country.
From the time the Pollocks arrived in Adelaide in 2011 they resolved to concentrate purely on flat racing with Nikki as the registered trainer. They enjoyed a pleasant lifestyle in South Australia for a full decade during which time Nikki was able to get the training operation up and running. They remember with affection their first Aussie win with Queensland castoff King Red at Jamestown in September 2018. Nine months later they would reel off a hat trick of wins with the same horse.
When Ben and Nikki Pollock decide on a relocation they make it a major one. In 2021, lured by the burgeoning NSW racing industry the Pollock family moved onto a sprawling 200 hectare property at Blandford just 36 kms from Scone. The training facilities are highlighted by a straight 1600m “hill” gallop for conditioning work, while horses are taken to Scone racecourse whenever a sharper gallop is required. English born Billy Cray and Zoe Hunt are the “go-to” jockeys for professional meetings while Arthur Pollock capably looks after the majority of picnic runners.
A picnic win for Arthur Pollock on the Ciaron Maher cast-off One Command.
Arthur comes back after a win on Shades Of Truth.
When you’re winning ten races in a month with a twenty horse team, you’re doing something right. Nikki Pollock’s impressive May tally will see twelve complimentary bags of Pryde’s EasiPerformance land in her feed room in the near future.
Nikki home on the farm at Blandford in the Upper Hunter.
(Banner image - Fill A Promise has been a consistent performer for the Pollock stable. Here she is in one of her six wins - A BM66 at Scone with Billy Cray in the saddle - courtesy Bradley Photographers.