MULTI-SKILLED jockey Chris Symons says his involvement on the Michelle Payne film Ride Like A Girl was the experience of a lifetime and tipped viewers to be “amazed” with some of the footage they will see.

Symons was a guest of the Rockhampton Jockey Club over the two-day carnival in what was his first time riding at Callaghan Park, where he rode Get Stuck In to win on Friday for Tony Gollan and on Saturday won on Worthy Hero for Jared Wehlow.

The Victorian rider spent two-and-a-half months away from the racetrack to fulfil his commitments on the Rachel Griffiths-directed film.

He was tasked with preparing a team of 35 horses to perform for the cameras and was also involved in choreographing the race scenes.

“I had to educate the horses, put them through a genre where there’s cameras around, quad bikes, drones … there’s a lot involved. It took a lot of good horses to be able to execute what we did,” he said.

“I had to get these horses to peak fitness where they could perform on the production days.

“It was a relentless couple of months. Long days, long hours, but the final product … I really can’t wait for it to get out.

“The racing fraternity will be shocked and amazed. The movie will have emotion, a bit of comedy and a lot of action.

“I feel privileged to be involved in it,” he said.

Symons initially had only a light workload at Callaghan Park on Friday, but when planes were delayed and diverted on Friday, he ended up with almost a full book.

“It was a trying day (on Friday). I only had the two rides and ended up with seven,” he said.

“I only started riding a week-and-a-half ago back in races.

“It was great to get a winner on each of the days. I’d like to thank the trainers for putting me on and it was good to get the results. I’d come back up here in a heartbeat.”

NO BONUS FOR HOMEGROWN TRAINERS
THE Rocky trainers suffered the same fate as the southeast Queensland contingent did over the winter carnival with the battle for the Trainers Bonus vehicle.

Tom Button and Jared Wehlow gave a big sight for the locals early on, but were overhauled by Tony Gollan, Ben Currie and Lindsay Hatch at the business end.

Like Rob Heathcote said in reference to the top New South Wales stables last week, Button said having the bigger stables in town made it much tougher.

“This is our grand final. This is what we chase,” Button said.

“It makes it tough when the southerners come up. It would obviously be better for us if they weren’t here!

“But I understand the club wants to put a show on and doing this helps promote the carnival.

“I guess the answer is that we just have to go and buy better horses.”

AQUIS FARM ON A MISSION WITH SCHEME
AQUIS Farm have put a huge bonus scheme in place to support the newest addition to its Queensland stallion ranks, the Group 1 Champagne Stakes winner The Mission.

Aquis have put $1 million on the table for any progeny of The Mission that wins a Two-year-old Group 1 race in Australia or either the Magic Millions 2YO Classic or Inglis Millennium (both worth $2 million).

The scheme also includes bonus payments from $25,000 for any two-year-old winner in his first crop.

Aquis has committed to donate 10 per cent of all bonus payouts to industry-related charities.

STEWART FLIES OUT OF GATES
BRAD Stewart has been quick out of the blocks in the first week of the new financial year.

Soaring Heart was his sixth winner for the week, which kicked off with a treble at Ipswich on Wednesday.

He then guided the Ben Ahrens trained stayer back to winning form in the Grafton Cup Prelude on Thursday, before partnering Last Armageddon to win at Rockhampton on Friday.

It should have been a Rocky double, but Stewart was on the plane that was diverted to Gladstone and missed a winner earlier in the day.

“They had two goes to land it (in Rocky). If it was me I would have landed it, but they chose to go to Gladstone instead,” Stewart said in typical dead pan style.

BIG NUMBERS FOR GRAFTON CARNIVAL
THE big prizemoney hikes in New South Wales is likely to produce the biggest ever Queensland contingent at the popular Grafton Cup carnival this week.

Grafton Cup Day on Thursday has minimum prizemoney of $40,000 for all support races, while on Ramornie Day the minimum is $30,000.

The eight races on Ramornie Day have attracted 188 nominations, including 30 in the $160,000 Listed feature. Entries include Group 2 Moreton Cup winner The Monstar, along with Tyzone, Tumbler and Havasay, who all placed in feature races during the Queensland winter.

Numbers are even stronger on Cup Day, with 218 horses entered. The $160,000 Cup has a whopping 35 entries, headed by the iron horse Tradesman, who is set to run in his fourth Cup in three and a half weeks.