Baylee Nothdurft continues to grapple with serious weight problems which have already threatened to severely restrict, or even end, his race-riding career on more than one occasion.
Nothdurft famously landed the Brisbane Jockey’s Premiership as an apprentice in the 2019/20 season, becoming the first apprentice to do so since Michael Rodd in 2002 and Zac Purton in 2003, but the path his career has followed since then has been vastly different to those two luminaries who went before him.
A broken jaw, suffered in the last week of his Premiership winning season was just the beginning of what was going to become very much a stop-start riding schedule.
That injury and juggling time served for a number of outstanding suspensions anchored Nothdurft’s progress at the time. When he did come back, he rode a quick succession of winners as if nothing had changed, but behind the scenes he was fighting a constant battle with his weight … and he wasn’t winning.
As early as November 2020, Nothdurft announced the twenty-four seven stress and strain on the body had taken its toll and that he would be taking a break from the demands of race riding which had left him tired, both mentally and physically.
When they love what they do, jockeys try to stay optimistic though and a refreshed Nothdurft was back in the saddle in March 2021. By November 2021 though, Nothdurft announced he was taking another month off from racing and, true to his word, he was back within a month.
But the stop-start schedule was taking another toll. The rides and the winners were no longer flowing freely, a circumstance which can severely test a rider’s motivation.
When he won the Premiership in 2019/20 Nothdurft rode 77.5 winners from 409 rides. The following season he landed 16 winners from 101 rides and, so far, this season his has 13 winners from 81 rides … so the negative, weight problem impacted trend is quite clear.
While his winning strike rate … 18.9%, 15.8% and 16% for the last three seasons … shows that Nothdurft has lost none of his mojo in the saddle the worry of just where his career is going has to be of real concern.
Currently Nothdurft, who has been working for the Steven O’Dea / Matt Hoysted stable, is taking another time out from race riding action
Trainer Steven O’Dea, who has worked closely with Nothdurft for a number of years, put the matter in some perspective.
“Baylee has been having trouble with his weight again,” confirmed O’Dea. “It’s just one of those things. He is so tall … very broad in the shoulders and that kind of stuff.
“Since he has been in the stable and riding work for us, we get on really well. Baylee has said that he just wants to have a break and not think about it for a while.
“I do feel for him. It’s unfortunate that he is not naturally lighter but, at the end of the day, you have got to play with what you have got. As far as the weight problem is concerned, you can only do what you can do … and Baylee will have to think about it.
“Matty (Hoysted) and I have had the conversation with him. If he thinks it is possible to come back and ride competitively again, that would be great. If not, he will continue to ride trackwork and trials for us and, going forward, we have told him that we would be happy to slightly expand his role in the stable to be part of the team.
“He is only a young guy. He is incredibly gifted. He has plenty of knowledge about horses and other racing stuff too. It would be good to utilise that, and we’d be happy to have him learn the other side of things with Matty and I.”
In a tough game in which many talents fall by the wayside, O’Dea and Hoysted are to be congratulated for opening up options for Nothdurft. Just where Nothdurft’s path will lead in the coming months had yet to be decided.
In his own words, Nothdurft is taking an indefinite break from race riding.
“It’s been an on-going difficult battle with my weight. I worked hard and my weight was good and then I got Covid … and I deadest put on enough weight in a week for it to be a real downer,” said Nothdurft.
“I had pretty much put my whole life into getting the weight right … which it was … and so that was quite disheartening.
“As a result, I’ve pretty much had to step away from race riding indefinitely at the moment and I’m exploring other aspects of the industry from the other side of the fence for a while. That is definitely something that I want to do in the future.
“Every time I did take one of those breaks before, I took them for weight reasons and yet I sort of worked harder in those breaks than I did while I was riding, so I never really got a break away from it all.
“It’s been a struggle for a long time. I’m not alone. It has happened to a lot of people before me.
“It’s good of Steve and Matt to have discussed other options with me. They didn’t have to do that, and I appreciate it.
“I’m not going to say I’ll never come back to race riding, but it is really is a difficult situation for me.
“I’ll just take my time with it for the moment before I make any decision on what I will do next.”
