Trainer Joe Pride commences each racing season in a familiar fashion: with an unblemished whiteboard, two aspirational objectives, and a considerable amount of optimism.
Two straightforward headings adorn the trainer’s office: ‘metro wins’ and ‘feature wins’. Each is accompanied by a target figure, goals that Pride readily acknowledges are designed to be challenging.
For the recently concluded 2025/26 season, Pride had set himself the ambitious objective of achieving 60 metropolitan victories, a mark that ultimately proved just beyond his grasp.
“I never meet the targets because I set myself lofty targets for each one,” Pride stated. “The target was sixty metro wins. I count the interstate ones as well, and we got forty-four or forty-five, which is a good season.”
The second segment of the whiteboard chronicles stakes winners by name. Pride had established a goal of 18 black-type winners and feels he came closer to this than many might realise.
“I had (a goal of) eighteen stakes winners. There are sixteen on my board. Everyone tells me it’s fifteen, but the Alan Brown is a black type race. It wasn’t last year, but I’ve counted it,” Pride remarked.
Following a victory at the final Sydney metropolitan race meeting of the season on Wednesday, Pride updated the final figures, captured a photograph for posterity, and, with some reluctance, erased the board.
The blank slate, however, did not remain empty for long.
Two new headings and two fresh targets are already in place as Pride aims for a flawless start to the 2026/27 season at Rosehill this Saturday.
Though no feature races are scheduled on the program, Pride identifies Zouripper as his principal contender in the Congratulations James McDonald Handicap (1100m).
Fittingly, the celebrated jockey James McDonald will guide the gelding in the race named to honour his Sydney jockeys’ premiership success.
Zouripper is backing up after securing a respectable third place behind Hawker Hall at Randwick last week, and Pride is confident that the swift return to racing will be beneficial.
“I ran him ten days after his first run and he ran well again, so hopefully he can do it,” Pride explained. “He’s racing really honestly and with a lot of determination.”
Pride is also set to field Aberlour and Gatsby’s in the NSW Jockeys Association Handicap (1300m).
He anticipates Aberlour will show improvement with further racing and over greater distances, while he believes Gatsby’s can rebound after encountering difficulties in heavy track conditions at his most recent outing.
“Gatsby’s was unlucky the other day because he was trapped wide, but I also wouldn’t run him in those (heavy) conditions again,” Pride commented. “He’s back on reasonable ground with his blinkers back on.”
With another empty whiteboard awaiting its new campaign, Pride embarks on a fresh season, intent on transforming ambitious goals into continued success.
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