Shortly after announcing earlier this week that he will be taking a ride in the 2018 Vodacom Durban July, Jeff Lloyd has confirmed that the 2018 Brisbane Winter Carnival will be his last.
Jeff Lloyd
Racing Minister Stirling Hinchliffe officially launched the 2018 Brisbane Racing Carnival, an internationally renowned event featuring world class horseracing, food and fashion, on Friday.
The carnival runs from 12 May to 9 June.
“The Brisbane Racing Carnival attracts tens of thousands of racegoers every year, and always manages to unearth a future star of the turf,” he said, adding that Winx had kicked off her 25-straight winning run in Queensland, scoring her first Gr1 win at the Brisbane Racing Carnival in 2015.
Lloyd was a special guest at the carnival launch and confirmed his plans to retire later this year.
He won last season’s Brisbane metropolitan and Queensland jockey titles and is set to do the same again this season.
“This will be my last carnival as it is time to spend more time with my family,” Lloyd told www.punters.com.au
“My older boy is at a jockey academy in South Africa and my younger son is also keen to be a jockey.”
Proud Dad Jeff Lloyd with his boys in 2013
“I want to devote time to helping them. They say go out when you are top and hopefully I can do that.”
Lloyd has ridden 94 Gr1 winners around the world but will chase the one that got away when he visits his son after the Brisbane carnival.
Lloyd plans to ride in the Durban July at Greyville,where he began his career and won multiple premierships after his family migrated from England.
“I think I have run third in it 11 times but never won or even run second,” he said.
Lloyd, 56, suffered a stroke in 2013 and made a remarkable recovery to return to riding.
He has won Gr1 races in Australia, South Africa, Hong Kong and Singapore.
