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By Ray Hickson

Two things come to mind for Molly Bourke as she winds up her apprenticeship in the next two months – establishing a good support base and breaking an almost three year winning drought for warhorse Felix Majestic.

Jockey Molly Bourke (Pic: Bradley Photos).

The former is something she’s been working on since returning from a stint in Victoria some six weeks ago, the latter she’s hoping to tick off in the Midway Handicap (1400m) at Randwick on Saturday.

Bourke, 23, winds up her apprenticeship on October 31 and in some way her time in Victoria showed her what she needs to do to move forward as a senior rider.

“It was a good experience, I’m glad I did it, but I’m glad to be back as well,’’ she said.

“When I was there I was being used as an apprentice but where I didn’t have a claim I didn’t have those connections.

“I’m nearly out of my apprenticeship now so with that experience I’m better off back here and setting my goals up here.

“Instead of focusing on outriding the claim it’s about building those connections so I have a stable bunch of connections when I do come out of my time.”

Front-running warhorse Felix Majestic hasn’t won since December 2023, and Bourke was on board that day, but he has bobbed up at times notching a few stakes placings including almost stealing The Hunter two years ago.

The last time the seven-year-old contested a Midway was back in October of 2023 and he won on that occasion, in a preparation that saw him win four of his nine starts.

“He’s very well placed, if you told me a couple of years ago he was going to be racing in Midway grade again I’d have laughed,’’ Bourke said.

“He had a patch there where he was very out of form and we thought he might be coming to the end.

“But he’s come back to form which is so good to see and with his benchmark dropping it’s worked out perfectly to be in that grade of race and he should be hard to beat.”

A couple of vintage Felix Majestic brave front-running performances have resulted in successive placings at Rosehill in August and Bourke is keen to see him back at Randwick on a dry deck.

One thing that has changed with the Gary Nickson-trained gelding is his ability to jump and run.

Bourke has noticed he’s just taking a bit of extra ground to wind up and she feels, particularly last start where the horse had to wasn’t able to get to the front until the 800m, it’s leaving him vulnerable at times.

What she’d like going into the Midway is for Felix Majestic to make lighter work out of a wide barrier than he has been.

“When I used to ride him he was the type of horse that would jump straight on the bridle and be hard going,’’ she said.

“At the moment where he’s giving his races away is being a bit slow for that first 100m to get into gear. He’s not crossing them as quickly as he used to.

“Once he gets to that rail he picks up and holds that high cruising speed but it’s taking a bit to wake him up. Last start he had that bit of pressure to work around Elson Boy who is also quite a strong front runner.

Felix Majestic runs third at Rosehill on August 15

“He doesn’t have a fast sprint but he can just sustain it, especially at 1400m.

“Being back on a good track is what he’s been looking for, he hates give in the track, and it might allow him to be a bit sharper.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday’s Randwick meeting