Damien Oliver wins Western Australian of the Year: Jockey ‘honoured’ to take out top award

Legendary jockey Damien Oliver has notched up one the biggest wins of his fabled career – despite retiring from the saddle six months ago – after being named the 2024 Western Australian of the Year. In a career already dotted with so many achievements, Oliver took home the State’s highest honour on Thursday night at a gala event at Crown, presented by BHP. The event marks the beginning of the WA Day weekend. Australia’s greatest ever rider, and one of WA’s greatest ever sportsmen, Oliver bowed out of his magnificent on-track career last December with a rousing final ride at the Ascot racecourse where it all began. His riding record included 129 Group 1 wins, 10 Victorian city premierships, three Melbourne Cups and four Caulfield Cups – along with countless treasured moments in the saddle. And off the track, Oliver has been a stalwart supporter of injured jockeys - establishing the Oliver Foundation in honour of his father Ray and brother Jason, who both lost their lives in racing accidents. Both those men were among the people Oliver paid tribute to, after first winning the Sport Award and then being named this year’s Western Australian of the Year before some of the state’s best and brightest. “This is a huge shock to say the least,” Oliver said. “I do feel a little bit embarrassed … I am really proud as a racing participant to his award. Racing is sometimes not so much acknowledged as a mainstream sport. It is a passion, it is a way of life – and the truth goes that if you do a job you love you never work a day in your life. “There are so many proud and successful Western Australians that have come before me - and so many Western Australian icons that I looked up to over the years - so to be recognised as one of those is a huge honour. “I know as West Australians we always punch above our weight in anything we do. “While racing has been really good to me, it’s taken some things away from me being a father and a brother. “But it’s through that I was able to learn to give something back to the sport and to the people that hadn’t been so fortunate.” Oliver – or Ollie as he is affectionately known - was raised in Byford, before moving to Victoria 35 years ago. His racing career began as a teenage apprentice, in the shadow of his brother Jason. It was Jason who spurred Oliver on to get into the saddle, and who booked the ride on his first ever race winner. Oliver rode more than 60 WA winners before transferring to Victoria – again following his brother - where he swiftly rose to the top, achieving the rare feat of topping a Melbourne jockeys’ premiership while still an apprentice. He was riding in the Melbourne Cup a year after his first mount – and that would become the race where he would enjoy his most memorable and emotional days in the saddle. Global attention focused on Oliver when he overcame extreme tragedy to win the 2002 Melbourne Cup on Media Puzzle. That was just days after his brother Jason had died of injuries sustained in a Perth racetrack fall. Oliver’s heavenly post-race salute to Jason was one of the most emotional moments in Australian sporting history. His father Ray had also died after a fall in Kalgoorlie’s 1975 Boulder Cup, when Oliver was just three years. Those twin tragedies prompted him to find a way to help in the form of his foundation. “It really became apparent to me that there was a gap in the industry so I felt a real need for the people and the families that were falling through the cracks - for their families and loved ones - to be looked after if they lost someone, or been permanently injured,” he said. Having decided to hang up the silks at the end of last year, Oliver could have bowed out at Flemington. Instead he chose to come full circle back to Perth – and provided one last equine miracle. In his final Australian race ride before retirement – in the $1.5 million Damien Oliver Gold Rush Stakes – he somehow weaved Munhamek between rivals from an impossible spot to cap a fairytale farewell. And that was all after he had been inducted to Australian and WA Racing Hall of Fames, and had an Ascot grandstand named after him. Among those watching another Oliver win were Premier Roger Cook, former premier Mark McGowan, Governor Chris Dawson, last year’s Western Australian of the Year Gina Rinehart, Seven West Media Chairman Kerry Stokes and AFL and Qantas boss Richard Goyder. During his speech, Premier Cook promised to hold another free event for the public later in the year, after the planned for metro WA Day festival was cancelled late on Friday because of the likely storms arriving in Perth over the weekend. Other events will be held across the state, including in Albany, Carnarvon, Geraldton, Kalgoorlie, Fremantle and Northam. Among the other award winners on the night were Professor Stephen Tingay, one of the driving forces for bringing the Square Kilometre Array project to WA, outgoing WACA CEO Christina Matthews and gender equality advocate Nicolette Beard. 2024 WESTERN AUSTRALIAN OF THE YEAR – Winners Western Australian of the Year – Damien Oliver Wesfarmers Aboriginal Award – Kim Collard Crown Perth Arts & Culture Award – Caroline Wood AM The Chamber of Minerals & Energy WA Business Award – Christina Matthews AM Alcoa of Australia Community Award – Mitch Messer APM Professions Award – John Curtin Distinguished Professor Steven Tingay Channel 7 Sport Award – Damien Oliver BHP Youth Award – Nicolette Beard