Zac Lloyd is flying.
End of story.
Son of legendary jockey Jeff Lloyd, winner of 15 Group 1s, Zac is still only 19 and just a couple of years into his jockey apprenticeship, but he is already riding far beyond his years. Most recently, Lloyd won a treble at Randwick on New Year’s Eve, a week before that he did the same thing on Christmas Eve. That is 6 Metro Saturday wins in the space of 7 days, an accomplishment that many can’t even claim to have achieved, but Lloyd can.
He currently sits 3rd on the Sydney Jockey Premiership Table with 30 wins from 145 starts at a strike rate of 20.7% – essentially he will win every 5th race he rides. For context, the leader of the premiership, the World’s Best Jockey, James McDonald (You might have heard of him) has 42 wins from 199 stars at a strike rate of 21.1%.
That’s right, the young gun Lloyd is currently hitting almost the same strike rate as the legendary JMac.
Due to his talent, he is already getting attention from top trainers such as James Cummings for the Godolphin camp and the John Hawkes camp as well, so clearly he is doing something right.
His 3kg claim has already been taken off of him, due to him surpassing 20 Metro wins (He has 30), so now he gets a 2kg claim until he has 50, and then he will have a 1.5kg claim until 80 wins and after that, he will have to ride at full weight, just like the rest of the full-time jockeys. But, at 49kg already, he will still be in full demand for trainers to ride horses who have a low handicapped weight, getting access to horses that jockeys such as JMac, Tommy Berry and Hugh Bowman would not.
So, I am declaring it now – Zac Lloyd is here to stay. Get ready to hear his name quite a lot throughout the next few years, cause this young man has talent and lots of it. I only look forward to seeing what the future holds for him.