Darren Beadman is arguably Australia's most successful jockey, but he is also a jockey with the unusual career twist of being an ordained minister.
Darren Beadman's Racing Career: Take One
Beadman's riding career had a flying start when he won the apprentice jockeys' title in his first season, 1982/83. He won the title again in 1984/85, the same season he had his first Group 1 win on Inspired in the Golden Slipper, a race he won again in 1997 on Guineas. In 1990, Beadman won the Melbourne Cup on Kingston Rule in only his third start in the race.
In 1996, Beadman completed the double of winning the Cox Plate and the Melbourne Cup - two of the most prestigious races on the Australian racing calendar. Also in 1996, he took the record of 186 winners Australia-wide and won the Sydney Jockeys' Premiership.
Beadman won the 1996 Melbourne Cup on a horse called Saintly - quite an appropriate name when you consider his next career move.
Beadman Joins the Ministry and Takes the Road Less Travelled
Beadman had been given a nine month disqualification from racing in Hong Kong. On his return to Sydney, Beadman used the nine months to consider his future, and he decided to make a full-time commitment to his faith and the Hillsong Church. The birth of his daughter who is profoundly deaf may also have affected his decision.
Beadman stunned the racing world in 1997 by announcing that he was retiring from racing to become a full-time member of the ministry at the Christian Life Centre at Waterloo, a Pentecostal Christian Church better known as the infamous Hillsong Church.
Beadman Returns to the Race Track and Further Success
The lure of the race track was too strong though, and in 2000 Beadman returned to the track and continued his dazzling racing career. He won further Sydney Jockey Premierships in 2002/03 and 2003/04, and recorded 143 wins in 2004/05 and 152 wins in the 2005/06 season.
These days, Beadman is again based in Hong Kong but still races frequently in Australia. His son Mitchell Beadman is also a jockey. In March, Darren returned to ride Bart Cumming's filly Occurrence in the Surround Stakes - replacing Mitchell.
In April Beadman was compared to the famous jockey George Moore, when he rode Tuesday's Joy at Rosehill's BMV, bringing a tally of three Group One wins from three rides on the mare.
Unfortunately Beadman had a bad fall in a Hong Kong race in October, which meant that he missed the 2008 Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup. He cracked his coccyx (tail bone) and was out of racing for some time while it healed.
Darren Beadman has been inducted into the Australian Horse Racing Hall of Fame and is considered one of Australia's greatest ever jockeys - even though he is currently based overseas. It would seem that although he has changed course over his life, he has discovered his true calling: not as a minister but as a jockey who inspires many others.
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