Having arrived in Tamworth as a hungry but raw teenaged jockey just over 12 months ago, Jackson Searle now leaves as one of the standout apprentices in the NSW Country Premiership.
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The 18-year-old first landed at the Cody Morgan stables in May last year with just one race win to his name.
Since then, Searle has racked up 67 first place finishes between the start of August and July 31, to sit eighth in the NSW Country Jockey Premiership.
It was thanks to a connection between Morgan and Searle's father, Justin, that the Goulburn native got a chance to race for Tamworth's leading trainer.
"Dad grew up with Cody and Luke [Morgan, Cody's brother], and it fell into place that way," Searle said.
"I came up to Cody from Goulburn as an opportunity with a leading stable in the northern area, and it went from there."
Given the thousands of hours Searle spent in the car with his father criss-crossing the state to reach various rodeo competitions, working with horses and cattle was infused in his DNA from a young age.
Now, on his first day working with Sydney-based trainer Annabel Neasham, Searle credits his fearless approach to riding to his upbringing.
"When you get on a 2,000 pound bucking bull and have it smash you up against the chute, and when you hit the ground it runs back over you, you kind of bring that mental toughness to this game," he said.
In much the same way that a coincidental connection opened the door for Searle to ride with Morgan, his relationship with Neasham was established through a chat with Melbourne Cup-winning jockey, Corey Brown.
"It's funny how it worked," Searle said.
"Corey Brown gave me the idea to think about moving down here, he thought it was time. He spoke to Cody and Annabel, and it kind of fell into place that way."
After more than a year of working and living with Morgan, Searle likened leaving Tamworth with leaving his second home.
And, for a born-and-raised country boy, starting anew in Sydney was "a little bit daunting".
"I got quite close with Cody and his partner Lucy," he said.
"I was riding their horses every morning and raced a lot of them throughout the week, so it was a very tight-knit community and everyone at the stables was quite close. It was different saying goodbye, but it was a move that had to happen."
Although Morgan bade farewell to his young charge recently, he knows he will see plenty of Searle when he races at Tamworth in the future.
And, given the young man's talent, Morgan knows it was a move that needed to happen for the sake of his career.
"It's what we hoped would happen," he said.
"Luke and I did something very similar when we were younger ... we both ended up in Adelaide with pretty much the biggest stable in the country.
"We've tried to follow the same formula, where he's ridden his 80 winners in the country and now moved to the city to continue his riding."
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