John Tapp Racing

John Powell was at a loose end when he returned to Australia in 2021 after calling time on his long riding career in Singapore. It wasn’t long before Racing NSW enlisted his services as a mentor for northern NSW jockeys, and more recently Gary Kliese has snapped him up for a co-hosting role on Sky Thoroughbred Central’s coverage of northern rivers racing. It’s almost forty years since John Powell began his apprenticeship with Helen Page at Warwick Farm. In a 37 year riding career he rode 1400 winners in five jurisdictions, more than half of them in Singapore. We were able to pin him down recently for a lengthy chat about his fascinating journey in racing. John begins by explaining how his opportunity with Sky Thoroughbred Central came up.  He says his main focus is on the characteristics of horses and tactics employed by jockeys. John says he’d barely settled back in Australia when he got a surprise phone call from Corey Brown on behalf of Racing NSW. The former top jockey takes us back to childhood days at C