Australia's oldest jockey prepares for his farewell Ballard

By Jordan Gerrans

Revered jockey Keith Ballard has made his name wrangling thoroughbreds in Queensland for the last 55 years.

As Australia’s oldest active jockey at 71 years of age, the Mount Isa-based rider is in the final weeks of his career as he is set to retire in the middle of next month.

Weight problems or the way he is riding at his advanced age is not prompting retirement for the popular jockey.

As he has been wrangling gallopers for the majority of his life, Keith has now made the decision to focus his attention on racing around in a different way.

Speaking to Racing Queensland on Wednesday morning to detail his retirement, Keith was in the middle of chasing around his enthusiastic young grandson Tommy.

Tommy has an older sister, Lilly, with their father being fellow jockey Dan Ballard – Keith’s son.

After retiring from his day job as a storeman at CNW Electrical Mount Isa in 2022, Keith has much more time to spend with his beloved Tommy and Lilly and it will only increase next year with his riding retirement.

It was a conversation with wife Denise – a local trainer in the North West – where it clicked in Keith’s mind that the time was right to end his illustrious career in the saddle.

“Denise said to me at one stage that if I keep going then I may have a fall which would lead me to not have the quality of life that I have now,” the veteran horseman said.

“She said to me that I have done my time and I have almost retired a few times before.

“We have been short of jockeys up here the last few years so I was happy to keep riding.

“I was looking at it like community service, helping fill in a gap for Denise and Tanya Parry’s horses when they were short a rider.”

According to Denise, that conversation was first broached when Keith turned 50 but he has stuck on for a couple of decades more – and then some.

The Ballard family from Mount Isa are icons of bush racing and were popular inductees into the Queensland Racing Hall of Fame in 2021.

The Ballards have called Mount Isa home for decades but it all started in Longreach for Keith.

Keith is adamant that he is not pulling the pin because he does not have what it takes to ride anymore.

In the recently completed season, he rode 15 winners and has one already under his belt in campaign 2024-25.

He heads to Richmond this Saturday for non-TAB rides with three more meetings to go before he officially retires at Julia Creek on November 16.

Mount Isa has a meeting on their schedule for 14 days following the Julia Creek race day.

It would be a fitting goodbye for the great of regional racing to ride off into the sunset on his local deck where he has competed for decades.

But, in true Keith Ballard fashion, family comes first for the universally respected hoop.

Instead of riding at Buchanan Park to farewell the local community and industry, Keith will head to Brisbane for a family function.

As he details, the Ballard clan is spread out across the Sunshine State and the opportunity to all be together in Brisbane for an event rarely comes around these days.

“I had a choice to skip the family event or skip the race meeting,” he said.

“To be truthful, we are fairly tight-knit family and if I skipped that to go to the races, well I am not doing my bit for the family.

“Our family and my brothers are based all over the state and we don’t get together too often so it is important we are all there together.

“It is a family commitment that I am looking forward to living up to.”

Keith has held the mantle of being the oldest active jockey in Australia in recent seasons following Western Australian jockey Danny Miller calling time on his career in the saddle at 70 in 2018.

He has won a swag of regional Cup races across his tenure, capturing the signature race in towns such as Birdsville, Boulia, Cloncurry, Julia Creek, Richmond, McKinlay, Maxwelton, Mount Isa, Stamford, Corfield, Longreach and Winton, among others.

He headed across the border to nab a Darwin Cup victory aboard the Mount Isa-trained Kerr Street in 1983 while he also claimed a Cleveland Bay triumph in Townsville.

The record books from when Keith started riding are not as accurate as they are these days.

But, he has ridden for 55 years and piloted more than 1,700 winners.

He does retire without a city victory to his name, which is something he says he wished he had achieved earlier in his career.

“I am happy with what I have done,” the respected hoop said.

“It is a great industry and it has been good to me.

“I still feel strong and I have always felt that way, I often ride the horses that pull. I feel confident with what I get on.”

The Keith Ballard farewell tour hits Richmond this Saturday, before stopping in Cloncurry and Mount Isa, and finally coming to an end at Julia Creek on November 16.

While Keith is calling time, Denise will not be.

She will keep training her small team of horses.

The smiling Denise was over the moon to see her stable flag bearer Metal Bar return to his best on Monday, claiming the Benchmark 65 Handicap over 1450 metres.

The seven-year-old gelding looked like a North West star on the rise last year when he won five on the bounce.  

Metal Bar was well beaten in his last three efforts before Monday where apprentice Tom Orr gave Denise’s gelding a gun steer to get him back on track.

“It has been a hard year so it was great to see the horse win,” Denise said.

“Tom rode the horse a treat and he is a lovely bloke, as well.”