Young jockey Matthew Cartwright will move to New Zealand this weekend as he aims to build further momentum in his riding career, with Friday’s meeting at Ballarat to be his final one on a Victorian racetrack for some time.
Cartwright will fly across the Tasman Sea on Sunday and cited a lack of opportunities in Victoria as a key reason behind his move.
“I wasn’t happy with how I was going as a rider, so my manager (Travis Johnstone) was speaking to a few people in New Zealand, like Brad Taylor, and recommended it could be a good move, at least for the spring and just see how you go,” Cartwright explained.
“I didn’t really have anything locked in over here to stick around for, so I thought I may as well give it a crack and see what happens.”
Cartwright has ridden more than 230 winners in his career to date, including one of Giga Kick’s earliest victories, and noted that greater confidence and a regular stream of winners is what he’s searching for in his new venture.
“I want to be out there, I want to be consistently riding, I want to be consistently riding winners and then hopefully, that can build on to something else over there,” he said.
“They’ve got a lot of Group 1s and big Group opportunities as well, so if I have the luck, I’d love to be riding in those as well.”
