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By Ray Hickson

Everest winning jockey Sam Clipperton hasn’t been as busy on the track as you’d expect, or he'd like, but he says he’s working hard behind the scenes to ensure that changes.

Sam Clipperton wins on Elle Hudson (Pic: Bradley Photos).

You could call it the next phase of his comeback.

Back at the end of 2024, just over a year after he won the TAB Everest on Think About It, Clipperton stepped away from racing. The break lasted about a year but when he returned things had changed.

As he puts it, “I’m not the 38kg apprentice any more” and at 32 he’s accepted that his body is different and he’s putting in the hard yards now to adjust and carve a new place in the riding ranks.

Clipperton’s last 50 rides stretch back to the start of June, that’s not very busy for a jockey with five Group 1s (plus an Everest) among 698 career wins to date, and he has just the one ride at Randwick on Saturday.

That’s on Elle Hudson, who he’ll chase a hat-trick on in the Myplates Handicap (2400m).

“It’s a bit of a quieter period for me, I’m always looking to be getting rides but I’m only riding 56kg at this stage so it limits opportunities,’’ he said.

“I’m very fit and I have to continue to work hard and they will soon come my way, I have faith that they will.

“I’ll be working to get the weight down to 55kg during the carnival and through to the end of the year. At 56kg I’m very strong and very comfortable, if I can trim that up it would certainly assist.”

He says a mistake he made, particularly in the time prior to his shock retirement, was taking rides at weights he knew he’d ultimately struggle to ride at.

That’s something he’s vowed never to do now knowing he’s at his strongest physically and clearest mentally in the 55kg-56kg range.

“I’ve learned over the years not to try and create opportunities by riding light and letting people down. I’ve done that a little bit,’’ he said.

“I’m not the 38kg apprentice any more.

“I did retire and even though I didn’t get real heavy I got to 65kg, I had 12 months to let down and my body be comfortable.

“I just make sure I stay really strong and really fit, prepare well, and it holds me in good stead when opportunities arrive.

“I haven’t lost any will to win at all. I came back for a reason, that was to win.”

Clipperton pulls on his TAB Everest winning colours once again on Elle Hudson, the grey has quickly improved his record with successive staying wins at Newcastle and Randwick.

Now a six-year-old, the Joe Pride-trained gelding is starting to find his mark in his second preparation being tried as a stayer.

“He’s probably had that chance to mature and have a bit of racing,’’ Clipperton said.

“He was always a type that was going to be best suited over a staying distance and he’s probably reached that stage where he can be strong over those distances with his lung capacity and stamina.

Jockey Sam Clipperton after his TAB Everest win (Pic: Steve Hart)

“He’s been very well placed and he seems to excel at that 2200m-2400m distance range.

“He seems to be improving at that distance range, and he’s well placed and racing at the right time of year. In another 12 months he might go up another level again.”

Around this time last year Elle Hudson, $4.60 with TAB on Friday, had his only attempt at the 2400m on the Randwick course proper, it was in the same grade he faces this weekend and he finished fifth as a $17 chance on a heavy 10.

He was asked to call on his staying nous to win last start, with Clipperton making a move well before the turn, and the jockey said there’s no reason he couldn’t back it up.

“They were going very slow and we were back in the field, I wasn’t going to be sitting back off the slow tempo. I made the move and it paid off,’’ he said.

“He was strong enough last start, he’s got to be right in it again.

“He’s going to stay all day and is going to be strong at the end. At this time of year in these staying races that’s a lot of it.”

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