While jockey Craig Williams does not hold the record for the most victories in the Winter Championship Final, no rider has demonstrated such dominance on the day it is contested as the respected veteran jockey.

His singular success in the $200,000 Listed Flemington feature was aboard Magic Consol, a key part of a record-breaking performance at the 2018 Finals Day meeting.

That day saw him achieve six wins, the most by any individual rider at a Melbourne race meeting. This surpassed the previous record he shared with several other riders, achieved with five wins at the same meeting two years prior.

Furthermore, he secured a treble at the 2015 event and a double in 2020. To the chagrin of his fellow jockeys, that significant meeting marked the last occasion he participated in the event that has grown to become a highlight of the Victoria Racing Club’s winter racing calendar.

He missed three editions, from 2022 to 2024, due to his dedicated humanitarian work in Ukraine. This followed his exclusion from the 2021 meeting due to an unintentional breach of Covid protocols.

In that year, Williams returned from Brisbane just three days before certain areas of Queensland were designated as Covid red zones. The designation was back-dated to days when Williams was still in the Sunshine State, preventing him from riding.

Williams largely has himself to blame for missing last year’s meeting, as his thoughts were far from Flemington while the Finals Day features were unfolding.

‘I was suspended last year, so I went and did some (ten pin) bowling,’ he stated.

This is how Williams handles being forced to miss a major meeting due to suspension. Famously, he was at the cinema when the 2011 Melbourne Cup was run, a race in which he was scheduled to ride the eventual winner, Dunaden.

However, the 49-year-old’s focus is firmly fixed on this year’s Finals Day as he aims to secure his 10th Victorian Metropolitan Jockeys’ Premiership.

Williams currently leads Jamie Mott by five wins with eight metropolitan meetings remaining before the season concludes on July 31.

He has mounts in all nine Flemington races, with seven of those horses positioned on either the first or second line of betting.

Al Duca stands as the $2.90 favourite for the 1600-metre Winter Championship Final, entering the race off a narrow second place to Seafall in The David Bourke at the same track on June 20.

‘He’s only had one blemish and I think they blamed the track being a bit firm at Bendigo,’ Williams commented on the gelding now under the care of Clayton Douglas.

‘He had a freshen up going into the other day, when he went down fighting.

‘He was great, he’s tenacious and he’s going to take a lot of beating.’

Williams’ shortest-priced contender of the day is in the first race, the $150,000 Next Generation Sprinters Series Final (1200m), where he will ride Stars Of Dom.

This will be his inaugural ride on the Lindsay Park-trained daughter of Exceedance, who has recorded metropolitan second placings in her only two starts to date. Williams expressed optimism following a trackwork assessment from fellow rider Blake Shinn.

‘Blake actually worked her on Monday or Tuesday and said that she’s going really well,’ Williams remarked about the $2 favourite.

‘She’s had two starts, really good form references and been beaten by nice horses when she was beaten both times.’

Williams’ other favoured mount is Losesomewinmore, with whom he will reunite for the first time since guiding the Richard and Chantelle Jolly-trained gelding to victory in July of last year.

‘He’s won five times down the straight, so he’s a great straight horse,’ Williams noted.

‘If he produces the acceleration that he did two starts ago they’ll have to beat him and, his run the other day, they felt there were excuses for him the way the track conditions were.’

Marwooba is contending with Star Of Macedon for favouritism in Race 2, Decalogue is the second favourite for Race 4, as is Wuddzz in Race 6 and Lucky Lucky Boom is an equal second elect in the final race.

Miss Aria is on the $5 third line of betting in Race 3, while Blethyn Williams’ outsider for the day is a $15 chance in the Creswick Sprint Series Final, which is Race 8.

For the biggest betting opportunities on the Winter Championship Final, explore the leading Australian betting sites.