17-year-old Brisbane based apprentice Mitchell Wood had a big day out last Saturday with 12 rides between two venues of Ipswich and Toowoomba. He even managed to ride a winner at both venues. After you've read this article, you'll surely have to admire the youngsters committment to his chosen career.

You sure have to enjoy the exuberance of youth. Take 17-year-old apprentice jockey Mitchell Wood for instance. Let’s have a look at what the teenager got up to last Saturday around the racetracks of South East Queensland. A quick overview of his efforts on the day shows that he may have in fact set some sort of TAB race riding record, as the youngster rode in 12 races on the day between two tracks - Ipswich and Toowoomba. In fact he could have had more rides on the day, had two of his Ipswich mounts not been scratched. It should be noted at this point of the article that there is no specific rule of racing that prohibits either an apprentice jockey, or senior jockey, from taking unlimited rides on a given day, although it is a given that stewards certainly closely monitor the health of riders who are riding many horses between two different venues on the one day.

Mitch’s day started off ordinarily in Race 1 at Ipswich when he clocked in eleventh aboard the 10/1 chance Syrion Son. He had a breather in Race 2 before making his way to the winners circle in Race 3 aboard the Kelly Schweida trained $3.20 second favourite Royal Saint. He followed that success with unplaced efforts on roughies Magic Pearl (30/1), Domain (30/1) and the more fancied runners Rowland Princess (6/1), Crowning Force (14/1) and Loaded Tycoon (14/1).

After the last race at Ipswich, which exited the barriers at 4.15pm, Mitch jumped in his jalopy and headed to the cushion track meeting at Toowoomba, which got underway at 5.10pm, just 55 minutes after the last race at Ipswich.

Mitch’s first ride in Toowoomba was in Race 3 on 8/1 chance Emerald Hill for Gold Coast trainer Trevor Bailey and they managed to clock in a close third. He then ran unplaced on 50/1 chance Mallory Park in Race 4, 50/1 chance Mister Taz in Race 5 and 25/1 hope Furious Lee in Race 6 – and he was then set to take the long drive back to Brisbane to get some quality shuteye, when it came to pass that senior jockey Adam Best - who had ridden Race 6 winner Hidden Treasure - was stood down by medical staff and thus he couldn’t fulfil his engagement on Doin’ Deals in the last race, Race 7. As no senior jockey was available, stewards authorised Mitch Wood to take the mount. In a driving finish, the judge could not split Mitch Wood on the Gerald Ryan trained Doin’ Deals and Toowoomba based apprentice Skye Bogenhuber on the John Byrne trained Look At Ruby, so a dead heat was declared.

Therefore after a day in the saddle that encompassed 12 rides, which started at 11am at Ipswich and finished at 8.47pm with the Toowoomba dead heat, Mitch Wood had ridden one-and-a-half winners and could head home to Brisbane and around 11pm he finally got to hit the sack. Whilst his day of race riding only started at 11am at Ipswich, his day had in fact started much earlier when his alarm went off at 2.50am - and soon after he was up and about to do work around the stables of his Hendra based boss Kelly Schweida and to ride trackwork. After trackwork and breakfast, he headed off to the Ipswich meeting just after 9am.

Mitch, who first saw the light of day in the Royal Brisbane Hospital on 28 February 1993, has now ridden 37 winners in his career to date – and those 37 winners have been made up of “one in the bush, 35 at the provincials and one in town.” Able to ride comfortably at 50 kilos, Mitch can currently claim two kilos at the provincial tracks and three kilos in town.

The teenager had his first ride at the near Brisbane “country” class track of Kilcoy, on 25/3/09, for Gatton based mentor Reg Mackay, the same trainer who ironically had also given Mitch’s father Mark, also a jockey, his first race ride, co-incidentally at Kilcoy.

Granted a city licence recently by stewards following his good provincial success, Mitch won at his first race ride in the metropolitan area, when he partnered his boss’s horse, the Kelly Schweida trained Ulladulla, to win at Doomben on 31/3/10. Mitch’s ability is held in such regard that he was even entrusted with the ride on that same galloper, Ulladulla, in the Listed Weetwood Handicap in Toowoomba some 15 days after the Doomben success. The pair clocked in a respectable fourth at 8/1 behind the locally trained galloper Poor Judge in the $150,000 race.

Mitch currently leads the Gold Coast apprentices’ premiership having recorded 24 wins on that track since the season started back on 1/8/09 - and to his credit he is also in the top few in the overall Gold Coast jockey premiership standings behind senior jockeys Dan Griffin and Terry Treichel.

Mitch Wood is managed by Thoroughmanagement on 0424 635 882 and he will be seen in action again this week at Eagle Farm tomorrow, Ipswich Friday, the Gold Coast Saturday and Caloundra Sunday.

In other news from the Wood household – and in what would seem an astute move - Mitch’s older brother Justin, who turns 19 in July, is heading off to Melbourne, on loan to Tony Vasil at Caulfield, whilst the Brisbane Winter Carnival is on, as it is simply a fact of life that apprentices get very limited opportunities in the city at this time, as there are only a few races that apprentices can claim in, over many weeks of racing, as black type racing naturally takes centre stage. Justin has ridden 68 winners in his career thus far, including 10 in the city, so the experience of riding both in Melbourne and at the competitive Victorian provincial circuit will be wonderfully beneficial for his long term future.