From Coonamble to Tamworth to right here in Orange, to say the past few weeks have been busy for Grant Buckley would be a big understatement.
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The prominent jockey has been doing his best to feature in as many races as possible and that continued on Tuesday when he took part in six of the seven events at Towac Park. He said the travel "hasn't been too bad."
"That's just part and parcel of it these days. There's so many race meetings and I've got such a big clientele that I've got to go where I've got to go," he said.
"Where those people take horses, I've got to go. You don't have a lot of choice about it but those people that support you, you have to support them as well.
"If I go two hours away it just feels like I've been around the block. Those trips that are five or six hours, they do take their toll on you a little bit but I've been lucky."
So what is Buckley's key? Well, as he likes to say, it's all about keeping the weight off.
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"Where I'm probably lucky is that I don't have to waste too much. Some of those heavier boys, they've got to do two or three hours in the sauna before they actually go to a race meeting," he said.
"That takes a toll on those sought of blokes. I keep myself fit on my days off, I don't splurge much, I look after myself and my weight has always been pretty good."
The Dubbo-based rider knows as well as anybody how important the sport of racing can be for those in regional communities.
"It's really good prize money and it doesn't matter where you go these days, the prize money is quite good," he added.
"It's good to race out there with the country people, they're great people. They're very supportive and it's just great racing.
"That's what racing is all about, the crowd and the public being back at the meetings as well as owners and staff being able to go to the race meeting and get to see their horses. They love their horses so it's good to have them back on board."
He managed to snag a few days off to celebrate his son's birthday on Wednesday, before being scheduled to suit up again.
"I've got Scone on Friday, Newcastle Saturday and I'm going to Coonabarabran Sunday and Newcastle on Monday, so it goes on."
After his impressive win with On A Promise at Coonamble just a few ago, jockey Brent Evans told NSW Country and Picnic Racing he was at the end of a massive weekend of travel.
"I took the camping mattress in the back of the car so I could pull up and sleep where I wanted to," Evans laughed.
"I had a camp at Dunedoo, then I went to Wagga racetrack and had an hour and half sleep in the car before going to Albury.
"I stopped at Narromine on the way back to Coonamble and by the time I got home to Tamworth last night, it was 1800kms, so it was a fair effort."
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