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By Ray Hickson

To jockey Aaron Bullock, Country Championships winner Know Thyself is the horse that helped him realise a dream while to co-trainer Leah Gavranich the horse is ‘the one’ and that’s why he’s named as such.

We’ll get to the naming story later.

Aaron Bullock finally has his hands on a Country Championships Final trophy. (Pic: Bradley Photos).

It wouldn’t be cliched to say that a win in the $1 million Evergreen Turf Country Championships Final on Day 1 of The Star Championships is akin to winning a Group 1.

There’s a reality that, as celebrated a country rider as he is, Bullock doesn’t get a lot of chances at stakes level let alone Group 1 – he’s only had one ride at the top level among closing on 5500 races.

So, as it was for Kayla Nisbet a year earlier, that’s why the race is so special.

“I might finish my career one day and never have a Group 1 winner but that doesn’t bother me, I just want to do the best I can with the opportunities I get,’’ Bullock said.

“To win the Country Championships Final it means the world to me because I’m all about the country. I wouldn’t care if I never ride in the city again, my career has been based around the country and to win it for Paul (Messara) and Leah is the best.

“They could have taken me off, I’m just grateful I was allowed to stay on him.”

Anyone who knows Bullock is aware that he does have a battle with weight and rarely rides below 58kg which is why it would have been easy for connections to look to another rider who could comfortably make 56kg.

When Know Thyself won his way into the Final via the Northern Wild Card, Bullock had three weeks to make sure he was ready even allowing for riding half a kilogram over.

With lessons from spending plenty of time when he was younger doing it the wrong way he was determined to get it right.

“I know my body well, I’m one of the lucky ones that have been kept in the game by the weight system,’’ he said.

“When I used to try to ride 56.5kg after my apprenticeship finished I was getting suspended all the time because I was making too many mistakes.

“As I’ve got older I’ve thought ‘where is my happy medium’ and for me it’s around 60kg, and being fit and healthy, but I could rip 2kg of fluid back to 58kg.

“The year I won the Australian premiership I rode under 58kg four or five times.

“When I won all four premierships - the Australian, NSW, Country NSW and Country Australia - I was prepared for it two or three months out. To win this race, I qualified the horse three weeks before and started preparing my weight two weeks out and then it’s over.

“It’s come and gone quick but in the scheme of things I’ve prepared for something for a lot longer to achieve something probably not quite as big.

“Definitely when I went over the line I’ve never had that feeling, ever, winning a race. It was phenomenal.”

Know Thyself arrives in time to win the Country Championships Final (Pic: Bradley Photos).

There’s so many amusing sides to Bullock’s Country Championships Final success.

In his post-race interview he said he has 12 qualifying trophies at home, but when he arrived home the day after the Final he counted 10.

On the subject of trophies, there’s a rule Amelia Bullock has at home that only allows Aaron’s trophies to be in the house for so long – she broke it to a small extent for the Final.

“I just love coming home with a Country Cup, especially one I haven’t won,’’ he said.

“We have this shed where the spa and sauna and my trophies and racing gear stays. When I’ve got a new Cup or a trophy it’s allowed to sit inside for two days then it’s got to go out with the others.

“When I got home on the Sunday my wife said this one can stay inside for a week.”

As far out as the 600m, Bullock felt he was in a winning position but the result came down to the last stride or two, as he reeled in Lisztomania, and while quietly confident he had won it was a piece of modern technology that confirmed it.

“If I had him close enough he was always going to be good enough,’’ he said.

“A stride before the line I felt I definitely had my head in front. I’ve gone the early crow before and got it wrong but I thought I had his measure that stride before.

“I’d gone 100m or so and pulled him up and looked up at the chopper. Then you always look for the little drone, it’s only been around a few years, and it was parallel to me.

“As I turned Know Thyself around the drone stopped and turned around and followed me. I knew it from then, it was a feeling I can’t even describe.”

And then the celebrations – with Amelia and their young son Finn on course things got interesting as the toddler was handed to Paul Messara who then did his best Lion King impression and held the child up in jubilation.

While this was going on Leah Gavranich was where she wanted to be, that’s right alongside her favourite horse proudly displaying the Country Championships Final winning rug.

Gavranich, as mentioned, gave the gelding his name and it comes from the 1999 film The Matrix.

In a scene where Keanu Reeves’ character Neo visits The Oracle, to determine whether he is ‘the one’, he’s told of a Latin phrase Temet Nosce. It means Know Thyself. And The Oracle explains that nobody can tell you if you’re ‘the one’, you just know it.

If you ask Gavranich, Know Thyself just knows it.

Leah Gavranich with Know Thyself after his Country Championships win. (Pic: Bradley Photos).

“We were going through names and I really liked him, I rode all his work and wanted to find a name for him,’’ she said.

“He’s an incredibly intelligent horse. If you gallop him he’s so push button and he aims to please, he’ll do whatever you ask. He’s so responsive to his rider.

“It’s hard to not get a rapport with him, he loves to be with you all the time. He’s a real people horse, you can’t not love him. He’s a cool dude. To me he is the one.”

Quite a few Country Championships winners have gone on to better things and Gavranich said Know Thyself will be given that opportunity as soon as races like The Coast or the Scone Cup.

In savouring the win, she said it’s important to acknowledge Bullock’s dedication to the horse.

While it may not have been a fairytale win, she says it definitely could have been scripted, it was a huge moment for a jockey who clearly loves the horse almost as much as she does.

“It’d be different if he’d won by five or six lengths but the fact the margin was so close just reflected how important it was for Aaron to get the ride,’’ she said.

“From the barrier he needed to get it right and timed to perfection. And he did.”

*This article originally appeared in the May 2025 edition of the Racing NSW magazine

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